All 49ers

The Most Important Player on the 2021 49ers

The most important player on the 2021 49ers is not a quarterback.
Grant Cohn|
The Most Important Player on the 2021 49ers
The Most Important Player on the 2021 49ers

The 49ers discussion all offseason has revolved around the quarterback position.

But quarterback is the deepest position on the team. Even the third-string quarterback, Josh Rosen, has lots of talent. So if Jimmy Garoppolo gets injured again, the 49ers should be able to win without him. Plus, Trey Lance will take his job soon anyway, probably no later than the Bye week, maybe as early as Week 1.

Which means the most important player on the 2021 49ers is not a quarterback. The most important player is Nick Bosa.

Bosa is the 49ers pass rush. Bosa is the one player on the defensive line opposing offenses have to double team. Theoretically, he makes Arik Armstead, Javon Kinlaw and Samson Ebukam better.

So if Bosa plays as well as he played as a rookie in 2019, the 49ers should have a terrific defense, perhaps a better one than last season when he missed all but two games with his second torn ACL. And last season's defense ranked No. 5 out of 32 teams.

But if Bosa does not perform up to his usual standard, if he's inconsistent in his first season back from an ACL surgery or gets injured again, which is his pattern, the 49ers pass rush could really suffer. And then the entire defense could be in trouble, because Robert Saleh won't be there to make magic. He's the New York Jets head coach now. And his replacement, DeMeco Ryans, seems talented, but never has called plays before.

Bosa has to make up for the loss of Saleh. Bosa has to play like a Pro Bowler. Bosa will determine how far the 49ers will go.

Loading recommendations... Please wait while we load personalized content recommendations

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.

Share on XFollow grantcohn
Home/News