Any concerns about 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa potentially struggling because of his holdout that lasted through the entire preseason have been quelled after five games.
Bosa saw his snap counts limited in the first couple games while he got back in football shape, but other than that there’s been no discernible effect on his play.
Through five weeks Bosa is Pro Football Focus’ highest-graded defender overall. He also ranks No. 4 in run defense grade and No. 2 in pass rush grade among edge defenders.
Bosa is also tied with Pittsburgh’s TJ Watt and Washington’s Chase Young for No. 4 in the league in quarterback pressures, and while he’s been credited officially with only 1.5 sacks, he’s leading all defenders in quarterback hits with 12.
The reigning Defensive Player of the Year was having a fine year, but saved his best for primetime. On Sunday Night Football vs. the Dallas Cowboys in Week 5, Bosa posted a season-high seven pressures, along with a sack and three QB hits.
There’s an argument to be made that the lack of sacks from Bosa is due to his truncated offseason. He didn’t get on the practice field until the Thursday before the season opener, so a line could conceivably be drawn between his inability to finish off sacks and a lack of on-field offseason work.
However, the addition of defensive tackle Javon Hargrave has added a new layer of difficulty to blocking the 49ers’ defensive line. Teams have deployed a strategy against them where they’ll mitigate the rush by simply getting the ball out of the quarterback’s hands. It hasn’t been particularly successful overall – the 49ers are allowing just 13.6 points per game – but it has limited San Francisco to a middle-of-the-road mark of 13 sacks in five games.
Sometimes it’s tough to quantify an edge defender’s impact when they’re not racking up sacks, but it’s clear during games and with a dive into the peripheral numbers that Bosa has already regained his DPOY form even without any offseason work.
