T
he San Francisco 49ers are riding high after a last second win over the Arizona Cardinals in week three to start off the 2025 season 3-0. But despite the highs of the win, it did not come without casualties. Leaving the game early with a knee injury, 49ers star pass rusher Nick Bosa did not return, instead limping gingerly back to the locker room while looking up at someone in the crowd and giving a thumbs down.
Well now, Bosa’s thumbs down makes sense. On Sept. 22, an MRI confirmed the worst for the 2022 Defensive Player of the Year and the 2019 Rookie of the Year– he suffered a torn ACL in his right knee and will miss the rest of the 2025 season. For the 49ers, losing Bosa is detrimental for a team looking to return to the playoffs after a one year absence.
Bosa’s Injury
Bosa left the game late in the first quarter and while it looked to be a relatively routine play, he looked to be in pain while walking off. After the game, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said that the initial tests performed did not show a tear but given how Bosa was feeling, he was still concerned that it was a serious knee injury.
“There is concern because of how he feels,” Shanahan said after the game. “They do the test and stuff on the sideline and usually they say whether he definitely did or not, and they didn’t say that. But we are concerned with that [a tear]. Keeping our fingers crossed for the MRI.”
And sure enough, Bosa did suffer a serious injury but there is one piece of semi-good news– it was a clean tear. That means that the other ligaments in Bosa’s knee suffered minimal damage, meaning that both the surgery and recovery should go smoothly and have Bosa back playing at full strength.
This is the second ACL tear of Bosa’s NFL career. The first one occurred in week two of the 2020 season, when he tore the ACL in his left knee at MetLife Stadium against the New York Jets. As a senior in high school in 2015, he partially tore the ACL in his right knee, but that injury was not nearly as serious.
The 49ers Without Bosa
Losing Bosa is a massive, massive blow to the 49ers Super Bowl aspirations– especially when you consider how young this year’s squad is. Before the injury, Bosa was off to a hot start, having recorded 17 tackles, two sacks, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery– coming up big in the 49ers’ week one win over the Seattle Seahawks when he recorded a sack and a fumble to seal the win. He also had a 21.9% pass rush win rate.
Now, the 49ers will depend on the young guys and the offseason additions to step up. Rookie Mykel Williams and free agent acquisition Bryce Huff will take on a much bigger role, with Williams in particular getting a massive opportunity to prove himself. The 11th overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft by the 49ers, the franchise drafted him so that he could provide an elite complementary pass rusher to pair with Bosa. Now he will get the chance to really prove that he can be that guy so that when Bosa returns, the 49ers have two top tier edge rushers getting to the quarterback.
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