Nick Bosa 49ers
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Nick Bosa is introduced before a game against the Seattle Seahawks on November 17, 2024.
T
he 2026 NFL season is nearly upon us. With the main wave of free agency over, all 32 teams are shifting focus onto the NFL Draft, where the hope is that they can find the missing pieces to their puzzle of success. But before the draft officially starts next month, teams will use these next few weeks to see if they want to add any players before they select the league’s newest crop of rookies.
For the San Francisco 49ers, free agency was a success– adding several key pieces to fill out holes on the roster. But still, the team has a lot of work to do, particularly when it comes to the defensive line. Dealing with several injuries on defense last, especially on the defensive line, the 49ers were the worst team when it came to sacking the quarterback and will surely be in the market for more pass rush depth. But in the fall, the 49ers will welcome back star Nick Bosa— who tore his ACL early in the ’25 season and missed most of the year. Bosa’s return will be a welcome one, but can the 49ers expect he will return to his dominant form? According to a recent article by Bleacher Report, Bosa’s best days may have already happened– and now the 49ers are left paying a lot of money for a player who already peaked.
Bosa Is Considered the 49ers’ Most Overpaid Player
Brad Gagnon of Bleacher Report wrote an article naming the most overpaid player for each NFL team, and when he got to the 49ers, he very quickly mentioned Bosa. Signing a massive five-year deal ahead of the ’23 campaign to make him the highest paid defensive player in the NFL, Bosa has played well for the most part during the deal, but has not quite looked like the player who won the 2022 NFL Defensive Player of the Year. Coming off his second career ACL tear in the NFL, there is a legit worry that Bosa will not be as good, leaving the 49ers to pick up the pieces.
“Bosa is awesome, but his production fell off markedly in back-to-back seasons before he missed all but three games in 2025,” Gagnon wrote. “It’s fair to wonder if he peaked as Defensive Player of the Year in 2022. If so, that five-year, $170 million contract will become problematic. He is the seventh-highest-paid defensive player in football.”
Since signing the contract, Bosa recorded consecutive Pro Bowl seasons, but only has one double-digit sack campaign in that time frame. Bosa will certainly help the 49ers’ pass rush improve in 2026, but given how he will be 29-years-old and coming off of another major injury, there is reason to wonder whether or not he will look like the Bosa we all grew accustomed to watching.
Bosa’s NFL Career So Far
The second overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, Bosa quickly emerged as a star, earning All-Rookie team and Pro Bowl honors while taking home the league’s NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Award– playing a pivotal role in helping the 49ers earn a spot in Super Bowl LIV. From then on, Bosa established himself as one of the NFL’s best players– even after tearing his ACL for the first time as a pro in 2020.
Returning from his ACL tear in 2021, Bosa recorded 15.5 sacks followed by an 18.5 sack campaign in his ’22 award winning campaign. In 2023, the season in which the 49ers returned to the Super Bowl, Bosa had 10.5 sacks in all 17 games.