Nick Bosa expects to be ‘on track’ for 49ers’ season opener after knee surgery

Nick Bosa is encouraged by the pace of his recovery from another major knee surgery and believes he is on track to return to the field during training camp and start the season on time for the San Francisco 49ers. That wasn’t always the case for the star edge rusher early on after suffering his third major knee injury of his career when he tore the ACL in his right knee in Week 3 of last season. “It was obviously tough at first,” Bosa said Thursday in his first news conference since his injury last September. “You just want to be able to play, especially how well things are going for the defense and for me personally. I felt like I was at a pretty high level to start the year. Then when you start out wanting to quit, never play again and never put your body in that position again. Then, little by little, you realize that you love this game and you want to get back to it. I never doubted that I could get back to where I am.” So far, reports of Bosa’s recovery have been positive and he is set to return to the field this summer. Bosa said his previous experiences with this type of injury helped him during the rehabilitation process. He said he did a better job of not rushing recovery, knowing he had more than 11 months left between the injury and the start of the 2026 season. “When I did it in 2020, it was like… going back, taking each step as hard as I could,” Bosa said. “I probably had to deal with things that I didn’t need to deal with, namely the obstacles on the road to recovery. Now I’m taking it slowly and I kind of have some benchmarks to go back to and look at.” Bosa’s return will be a huge help to the 49ers defense which ranked last in the NFL last season with 20 sacks. Bosa has had at least nine sacks in all five seasons without an injury in the opening month as he has been one of the most productive edge rushers since being drafted second overall in 2019. Bosa has made the Pro Bowl in all five of his healthy seasons and won the AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year award in 2022, when he led the league with 18 1/2 sacks. Bosa’s 74 1/2 sacks in the regular season and postseason are fifth-most in the NFL since entering the league in 2019 despite missing nearly two full seasons. His 280 total pressures rank fourth in the NFL during that span, according to Sportradar. No Bosa brothers reunion Bosa didn’t seem optimistic about a possible reunion with his older brother, Joey, who remains unsigned after playing last season in Buffalo. “I think he’s working on his golf game right now, so I don’t think he’s thinking too much about football,” Nick Bosa said. Joey Bosa turns 31 in July and is coming off a season where he had five sacks in 15 games for the Bills. While the 49ers could use more juice in the pass rush, adding Bosa doesn’t seem like a likely option at this point. “I look at our team like if we had our team and anyone we could bring in, especially someone like that, it would be awesome,” coach Kyle Shanahan said. “But that’s not always possible.” Isaac Guerendo Injures Pectoral Muscle Running back Isaac Guerendo’s chance to bounce back from a disappointing sophomore season took a setback when he tore a pectoral muscle while lifting weights. Shanahan said he expects Guerendo to be sidelined until late in training camp. Guerendo showed promise as a rookie after being drafted in the fourth round in 2024, totaling 430 yards on 84 carries with four touchdowns. But Guerendo fell to the third team last season after the team acquired Brian Robinson to back up Christian McCaffrey. Guerendo didn’t take the field for a single offensive snap all season, being relegated to special teams duties. The Niners also waived running back Sincere McCormick and signed running backs Jermar Jefferson and Jordan Mims for depth in the offseason. Safety Darrick Forrest was placed on injured reserve. Associated Press reporting.