The San Francisco 49ers are 2-0 and hosting the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. Their biggest defensive problem is still the same one that followed them through camp: Nick Bosa’s availability. The star edge rusher stayed off the field for a second consecutive practice this week, a Nick Bosa injury update that now includes a calf problem on top of the surgically repaired right knee he has been managing since last fall.
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 was down Wednesday under a knee/resting-player tag. Thursday’s designation shifted to the calf. The 49ers’ official injury report matches that stretch: DNP on Wednesday and Thursday, with Friday’s column still blank and no game status posted yet.
That calendar is not a small detail. Bosa tore the ACL in that same right knee in Week 3 last season — against these Cardinals — and the rest of 2025 ended there, a timeline NFL.com documented at the time. He played three games in 2025. He has played two in 2026. The 49ers got him back for the Melbourne opener and last week’s home win, then immediately started protecting the knee again. A new lower-leg issue, two days before another Cardinals date, is the exact load-management nightmare this defense cannot treat as routine rest.
He has not finished a sack in two games. He has not been invisible, either. Through 76 of 120 defensive snaps, Bosa has seven tackles and one quarterback hit, numbers carried in the Bay Area News Group account on The Mercury News. Raheem Morris treated the missing sack column as a punch line, not a verdict.
“He’s been the most dominant player without a sack.”
Raheem Morris, 49ers defensive coordinator
Morris pointed to the first snap of the season, when Bosa drilled Matthew Stafford, and to last Sunday, when he chased Miami’s Malik Willis around the pocket. The coordinator’s read is simple: the rush plan is working even if the box score is not. San Francisco’s defense still has to prove it can close.
| Season | Games | Sacks |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 17 | 10.5 |
| 2024 | 14 | 9.0 |
| 2025 | 3 | 2.0 |
| 2026 | 2 | 0.0 |
Those yearly totals, compiled at Pro-Football-Reference, explain why every missed practice lands harder than it would for a rotational end. Bosa is 28, an eight-year veteran and a five-time Pro Bowler (2019, 2021-24). He played full regular seasons from 2021 through 2023. Since then the résumé has holes: 14 games in 2024, three last year, two so far in 2026, and 64.5 career sacks that have not moved this month.
The defense around him is not clean, either. Bosa’s own standard after the Dolphins game sat on the run fit, 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 carried Kyle Shanahan’s Monday review. Shanahan 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. He still wanted snaps back on the ground. Miami ran for 85 yards on 20 first-half carries before San Francisco tightened the second half. The 35-13 final, recapped by ESPN, hid some of those early yards.
Depth makes the next 48 hours sharper. Romello Height and James Thompson Jr. also sat Thursday, leaving the edge and interior thinner than a 2-0 team wants against a Cardinals offense now built around Jacoby Brissett, Tyler Allgeier, and rookie back Jeremiyah Love, as listed on Arizona’s official depth chart. Christian McCaffrey, Trent Williams, and Dre Greenlaw returned to full participation after Wednesday rest days. That is protocol. Bosa’s two-day absence is not the same bucket.
Sunday’s game is set for 1:05 p.m. PT at Levi’s Stadium, a kickoff window the club posted in its Week 3 viewing guide. The 49ers have not ruled Bosa out. They have not cleared him. Friday’s report will be the first real tell. Until that sheet posts, the honest read is the one on the practice field this week: the player this defense can least lose is the one who has not practiced since Tuesday.
