Add The California Post on Google SANTA CLARA — Fred Warner, check. Christian McCaffrey, check. George Kittle, check. And, at last, the 49ers can put a checkmark next to Nick Bosa’s name.
The All-Pro pass rusher who hadn’t played since last September became the last of the Niners’ injured stars to return to practice Wednesday, just in the nick of time for the team’s 8,000-mile flight to Melbourne, Australia, that was scheduled to depart Wednesday night.
That’s where the 49ers will open their season against the Rams a week from Thursday, and while nothing’s been finalized, it sure sounded like Bosa plans on playing — 11 months removed from the second surgery he’s had to repair the ACL in his right knee.
Bosa was asked directly about his status for Week 1 and said, “after today, yeah, pretty good.”
Out of all the 49ers’ big names coming back from injuries this camp — heck, throw Kyle Shanahan in there, too — Bosa isn’t the loudest (Warner, Kittle) or most important (McCaffrey).
We all saw the organization’s well-oiled machine in action while Shanahan was limited earlier in camp after his car crash. McCaffrey can dominate a game like few others, and if Warner isn’t the team’s spiritual leader, it’s Kittle. But they all play relative positions of strength on this roster.
On the flip side, take a look at this chart and see if anything sticks out:
That’s how the 49ers stacked up against the rest of the NFL in quarterback sacks since they drafted Bosa second overall in 2019. Every season Bosa has missed fewer than two games, the Niners have ranked inside the top 10.
In other words, when Bosa’s healthy, so is the 49ers’ pass rush.
Whatever pressure the Niners’ could put on opposing quarterbacks evaporated after Bosa went down in Week 3 last year. The losses of Warner and first-round edge rusher Mykel Williams, who remains out until at least Week 5 of this season, only made things worse.
It was such an issue that the 49ers addressed it with another top draft pick, third-rounder Romello Height, and in free agency, with ferocious three-technique Osa Odighizuwa.
Even in the aggregate, Bosa’s unique skill set can’t be replicated. The six non-rookies in the Niners’ defensive line room have combined for 34 career sacks. Bosa alone collected 62.5 over his first six seasons, more than anybody besides T.J. Watt, Myles Garrett or Trey Hendrickson.
So no wonder even teammates on the offensive side of the ball rejoiced seeing the white No. 97 jersey return to the practice field Wednesday for the first time since the first week of camp.
“Having him back out there, we’ve got another guy on the edge who is the guy and can get after the quarterback,” right tackle Colton McKivitz said. “To see that he’s finally back out there and ready to go, it gives us a lot of confidence in the defense.”
McKivitz got a close-up look during 11-on-11s and was asked afterward if Bosa looked like the same, explosive player he was before his knee was operated on last September.
“Oh, yeah,” McKivitz said. “Bosa’s Bosa.”
Bosa was a full participant, wearing a soft black brace on his knee, and said he “felt great” and was “very encouraged” by his first practice back. That’s a good sign because the last time Bosa tried to up the activity, he developed tendinitis that forced him to shut down football activities.
Bosa acknowledged he “ramped it a little too fast with the football stuff” at the start of training camp and even returning now puts him on an aggressive timeline.
Most ACL recoveries take 12 to 18 months. Bosa is attempting to come back in 11.
That’s without taking into account that Bosa underwent the same operation and rehab in 2020. Making the comeback a second time is a “different beast,” according to one orthopedic surgeon who spoke to the San Francisco Chronicle, while another said it would be “asking a lot” for him to return to the level that made him the AP Defensive Player of the Year in 2022.
On top of that, there’s the 32 hours Bosa will spend cramped in a pressurized cabin. He said the longest flight he’s ever taken was from his home in Florida to San Francisco and acknowledged, “I don’t really know how this is going to feel on my body.”
So, of course, the 49ers are desperate to get Bosa back, and he sounds even more restless to return to game action. But there are risks to weigh as he races toward Week 1.
Remember, the 49ers have 16 more games after that.
As we saw last year, they need Bosa to be healthy for as many of them as possible.
