Is Brock Purdy still seen as inexperienced until he defeats the Philadelphia Eagles? Matt Maiocco, a 49ers insider, weighs in on the situation.
Bosa understands better than anyone that sacks aren’t everything for a defensive end.
On paper, the 49ers’ great pass rusher had a poor start to the 2023 NFL season, but despite the lack of quarterback sacks, he was routinely one of the league’s highest-rated players.
Nick Bosa was on KNBR 680’s “Murph & Mac” on Tuesday, when he was asked about his perceived sluggish start to the season, if he was in top football shape after missing all of training camp due to a contract holdout, and if he wished he had earned a couple more sacks to quell outside conjecture.
“I think I was pretty close,” remarked Bosa. “I mean, I wouldn’t say Game 1.” However, I believe my tape versus the [Los Angeles] Rams was quite good after that. I absolutely hope I could have snuck a sack in a few of those earlier games because it would have silenced the crowd.
“Sacks aren’t…, especially when you’re playing on a defense that relies on you doing your job; you can’t really freelance.” If you want to be one of the greatest defenses in the league, you have to do your job well, which I believe we do here. So it’s not just about the stats, and we were winning games early on, and we’re still winning games now, so I was improving throughout the year, and I’m still improving overall. “I believe that is continued progress.”
Bosa had a career-high 18.5 sacks as the 2022 NFL Defensive Player of the Year, but he only had 2.5 sacks through the first seven games of this season for San Francisco. Bosa, on the other hand, has 5.5 sacks in his previous four games and appears to have silenced any remaining critics.
Bosa now leads the 49ers in sacks (8) this season and will aim to add to that total in Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field.
