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49ers Matchup of the Day: Trent Williams vs. Nick Bosa

I introduce a new feature to All49ers: The Matchup of the Day at 49ers training camp.
49ers Matchup of the Day: Trent Williams vs. Nick Bosa
49ers Matchup of the Day: Trent Williams vs. Nick Bosa

I introduce a new feature to All49ers: The Matchup of the Day at 49ers training camp.

On Friday, the matchup of the day went to left tackle Trent Williams and defensive end Nick Bosa. They faced each other twice during one-on-one pass-rush drills.

Coming into Friday, Williams had dominated Bosa in this drill. Stonewalled him and stopped him in his tracks. Williams clearly is the best offensive lineman Bosa has ever faced. Williams is the best offensive lineman I've ever seen in person. He's unreal.

Bosa understandably has struggled to figure out a plan of attack against Williams. But Bosa is has a genius-level football I.Q., and he put together a clever plan on Friday.

On the first rep, Bosa took three aggressive steps upfield, as if he were doing a speed move around the edge. After the third step, he turned into Williams' chest and hit him with as much power as he could muster. Bosa might be the most powerful defensive end in the NFL, and Williams still blocked him. It was like watching two giant walruses clash on the beach. The sand shakes. I was standing 50 feet away and practically could feel the collision vibrate the grass.

The way I saw it, Bosa wasn't trying to win the first rep -- he was setting up Williams for the second rep.

Because the second time, Bosa pretended like he was going to hit Williams again with a power move, so Williams braced for contact. At the last moment, Bosa cut inside and and made Williams whiff. 

I've never seen Williams whiff. Ever.

Bosa won the matchup of the day.


Published
Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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