49ers’ Bosa unfazed by lack of sack success so far, with Bengals looming

Nick Bosa says ‘it’s a matter of time’ before sacks come and that ‘hopefully it’s in the biggest moments’

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — It takes some searching to locate 49ers edge rusher Nick Bosa among the NFL’s sack leaders.

Bosa has two and a half sacks in seven games and is on pace for roughly six sacks over a 17-game season, which is nowhere near what the 49ers or anyone else expected. Not after cashing in on an 18 1/2-sack season and NFL Defensive Player of the Year award for a five-year, $170 million contract extension.

The NFL’s highest-paid non-quarterback is tied for 64th in sacks. A half-sack behind his brother Joey, a Los Angeles Chargers edge rusher. A half-sack behind second-year teammate Drake Jackson, who had a hat trick in the opener but has dropped off the radar in terms of playing time since being acquired in the Randy Gregory trade.

On the other sideline on Sunday will be Cincinnati defensive Trey Hendrickson, who went from 14 sacks in 2021 to eight sacks a year ago but has already had seven this season.

When asked about Hendrickson’s comeback this season, Bengals coach Zac Taylor cut reporters off with his own bull rush.

“Maybe he didn’t have an extra-high number of sacks, but he impacted a lot of games,” Taylor went on to say. “You’re going to have sack production some years and not others.” Sometimes it’s just a millisecond, due to the quarterback releasing the ball or some other factor.”

That is exactly where the 49ers are with Bosa right now. Opponents regard him as so capable and influential that Minnesota quarterback Kirk Cousins told Peyton Manning before his Monday night “ManningCast” that he had a set of five plays he could check to whenever Bosa took a breather.

Those plays required deeper drops and more time, which the Vikings did not believe would be available with Bosa on the field. Cousins went downfield for a 17-yard gain the first time Bosa left the field. Manning couldn’t help but congratulate himself on relaying the inside information.

The 49ers’ coach, Kyle Shanahan, was unimpressed. He said it was standard procedure for any team facing a dynamic edge rusher on Wednesday.

“Everybody does it,” Shanahan said as the 49ers (5-2) began their preparations for Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals (3-3) at Levi’s Stadium.

Bosa is getting chipped and double-teamed by tight ends and running backs. Which happened last season and pretty much since he was drafted second overall out of Ohio State in 2019.

“Everybody outside the building is going to talk about how many sacks he has and is he affecting the game that way,” the linebacker said. “But he affects it in so many different ways aside from sacks and that’s why he’s one of the best defensive players in the league and why he got paid as such.”

Bosa stated that he had poor performances against Pittsburgh in Week 1 and Cleveland in Week 6.

“I’ve had two games that are below my standard and I’ve been happy with a lot of the things I’ve done in other games, but I don’t think I’ve played a great game yet,” Bosa said in a statement.

Great money goes hand in hand with great games. Or, at the very least, they should. Bosa stated that his own performance metric is simple.

“It’s pretty simple for me,” said Bosa. “That’s all I’m thinking about. Just going into the game with the mindset of getting off the ball as quickly as possible and being physical, and everything else takes care of itself. When I don’t do that, I’m attempting to play what I’m seeing and falling behind.”

Despite his desire for sacks, Bosa believes Taylor’s theory that they don’t tell the whole story in terms of performance.

“I try not to equate them because it’s not an exact correlation at all,” Bosa went on to say. “I believe I’ve had some really good games this year that weren’t sack games.” Then I got one against Cleveland, and it turned out to be one of my worst games.

“There are many factors, but I believe that if you stay the course and put yourself in the right positions, they will eventually come.” I’m trying to maintain my level of performance, and I believe they’ll come. It’s been a long year, so hopefully they’ll come at the right time.”

Shanahan doesn’t appear too concerned. Sacks are the result of a rush and coverage, and Bosa’s rushes have yet to balance out.

“I look at how people move and whether they look in shape or as talented as the year before, and he looks the exact same,” he said. “I understand the results aren’t there. When Bosa beats someone, there has to be nowhere for the ball to go… I don’t think we’ve ever had that rush when we’ve had people covered.”

Bosa admits that his training camp holdout, which earned him an average salary of $34 million, was great for his bank account but wasn’t ideal for getting off to a good start.

“I’m trying to work on stuff this year that I wasn’t able to do in camp,” Bosa said in an interview. “I think I was thinking too much during those (bad) games because I was trying to add something to my rush plan, which is not what I want to be doing during the season.” I want to focus on what I do best for the entire year. There’s no excuse for that at this point.”

The 49ers have a number of concerns following their 22-17 loss to Minnesota after allowing 452 yards of total offense, allowing Cousins to beat them on third down multiple times, and finishing with zero sacks.

Warner sees no distinction between Bosa’s explosion and dedication.

“He obviously has a very high standard for himself,” Warner was quoted as saying. “He’s the last person I’m worried about.”