Nick Bosa Still Away From Team, Week 1 Status In Doubt

According to Ian Rapoport, 49ers DE Nick Bosa is still holding out and was not at the team facility on Wednesday morning. 

This is important because today is when most of the teams are beginning their prep for Week 1 in earnest, including key practices and game-planning meetings. 

Even though Bosa has missed all of training camp and the preseason, San Francisco has been optimistic that he could ramp up to form pretty quickly. Bosa has a rigorous training regimen that he follows when he’s away from the team. 

But missing practice this week would make it a lot harder for the 49ers to put him in the lineup for their opening game against the Steelers. 

Bosa is entering the final year of his rookie deal and the reigning NFL defensive player of the year is seeking a huge contract, looking to match and likely exceed Rams DT Aaron Donald as the NFL’s highest-paid defensive player at $31.6 million a year. 

The former No. 2 pick has been absent from training camp and accruing fines of $50,000 per day that he’s gone, in addition to fines equal to a game check for missing preseason games. He would also forfeit his game check if he missed Week 1, which is about $1 million. 

Bosa, 25, is a former first-round pick of the 49ers back in 2019. He finished out the final year of his four-year, $33,551,874 rookie contract that included a $22,421,364 signing bonus.

The 49ers opted to pick up Bosa’s fifth-year option back in April of 2022, which was worth $17,859,000 fully guaranteed for the 2023 season.

In 2022, Bosa appeared in 16 games for the 49ers and recorded 51 total tackles, 19 tackles for loss, 18.5 sacks, two forced fumbles and one pass deflection. 

We’ll have more on Bosa as the news is available.