The 49ers keep winning, but Nick Bosa’s practice status is turning into the storyline that won’t go away.
San Francisco is 2-0 and set to host the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, yet its biggest defensive concern remains the same one that followed the team through camp: whether Bosa will be available. The star edge rusher missed practice for a second straight day this week, and the issue has now expanded from the surgically repaired right knee he’s been managing since last fall to a calf problem as well.
Matt Barrows of The Athletic posted on X: “An injury where the 49ers can least afford it” -
An injury where the 49ers can least afford it: Nick Bosa missed Wednesday's practice with a "knee/resting player" designation. He missed Thursday's with a calf issue. pic.twitter.com/sGdX554N94
- Matt Barrows (@mattbarrows) September 24, 2026
Bosa opened the week under a knee/resting-player designation on Wednesday, then was listed with a calf issue on Thursday. The 49ers’ official report shows him as a DNP on both days, with Friday still blank and no game status out yet.
That matters because this is not some random maintenance situation. Bosa tore the ACL in that same right knee in Week 3 last season, against these Cardinals, and his 2025 season ended there.
He played three games in 2025. He has played two in 2026.
San Francisco got him back for the Melbourne opener and last week’s home win, then went right back to protecting the knee. Add a new lower-leg issue two days before another meeting with Arizona, and this suddenly looks like the kind of workload problem the 49ers cannot afford to treat casually.
Even without a sack through two games, Bosa hasn’t been a ghost. He has 76 of 120 defensive snaps, seven tackles and one quarterback hit, according to the Bay Area News Group account in The Mercury News. Raheem Morris brushed off the empty sack column with a line that said plenty about how Bosa is still affecting games.
“He’s been the most dominant player without a sack.”
Morris pointed to Bosa’s first snap of the season, when he hit Matthew Stafford, and to last Sunday, when he chased Miami’s Malik Willis around the pocket. The point from the coordinator’s view is clear: the pressure plan is working even if the sack total hasn’t shown up yet. The defense still has to finish the job.
The bigger picture makes the missed practices hit harder. Pro-Football-Reference has Bosa with 10.5 sacks in 2023, 9.0 in 2024, 2.0 in 2025 and none so far in 2026.
He’s 28, an eight-year veteran, a five-time Pro Bowler from 2019 and 2021-24, and a player whose recent availability has been much choppier than the full-season stretch he delivered from 2021 through 2023. Since then, the resume has come with gaps: 14 games in 2024, three last year and two this season.
His career sack total sits at 64.5.
There’s still some cleanup needed beyond the edge rush. Bosa’s own postgame view after the Dolphins game centered on the run defense, not the pass rush.
“That’s definitely the No. 1 get-better: stopping the run a little better,” he said in a San Francisco Standard piece that also included Kyle Shanahan’s Monday review. Shanahan said he liked the four sacks and the way the front “caged” Willis, forcing him out the back of the pocket instead of up through the B-gap.
Even so, he wanted better work against the run. Miami had 85 rushing yards on 20 first-half carries before San Francisco tightened things up in the second half of the 35-13 win, as ESPN recapped.
The depth around Bosa is part of the concern, too. Romello Height and James Thompson Jr. also sat Thursday, leaving the edge and interior thinner than San Francisco would like heading into Sunday.
Arizona’s official depth chart lists the Cardinals’ offense around Jacoby Brissett, Tyler Allgeier and rookie back Jeremiyah Love. Meanwhile, Christian McCaffrey, Trent Williams and Dre Greenlaw were back to full participation after resting Wednesday.
Sunday’s game is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. PT at Levi’s Stadium, according to the club’s Week 3 viewing guide.
The 49ers haven’t ruled Bosa out, and they haven’t cleared him either. Friday’s report should tell the story.
For now, the most important defender on the roster is the one who hasn’t practiced since Tuesday.
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