{"id":5222,"date":"2026-07-23T11:38:45","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T11:38:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5222"},"modified":"2026-07-23T11:38:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T11:38:45","slug":"49ers-need-d-linemen-who-will-complement-nick-bosas-acl-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5222","title":{"rendered":"49ers need D-linemen who will complement Nick Bosa&#8217;s ACL recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<p>SANTA CLARA \u2013 When Nick Bosa jogged to the 49ers\u2019 sideline with another torn ACL, their pass rush was effectively done for the season.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5220\">Opinion: California schools are on the frontlines of fighting homelessness. Now they have funding.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnytime you have a former defensive player of the year and sack leader and perennial Pro Bowler and he\u2019s not in your lineup, it\u2019s not ideal,\u201d defensive line coach Kris Kocurek said earlier this offseason.<\/p>\n<p>Getting Bosa back to full health is the 49ers\u2019 ideal scenario to revitalize their pass rush. The defense he comes back to will look different, with new players and new schemes, all under new defensive coordinator Raheem Morris.<\/p>\n<p>Training camp won\u2019t reveal if the 49ers fixed last season\u2019s anemic pass-rush that tallied an NFL-low 20 sacks. Quarterbacks, after all, are off-limits in practice. But working on explosiveness, hand placements, and in-line communication are vital duties at camp these next several weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Adding a veteran pass rusher would be helpful, of course. The 49ers have the NFL\u2019s most salary cap space to do so if they swing a trade like the Rams already did for Myles Garrett. A more likely scenario is the 49ers add a lower-tier veteran who\u2019s experienced in their system, then roll the dice on a youth-laden cast enveloping Bosa and defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa, March\u2019s trade acquisition from Dallas.<\/p>\n<p><strong>HOW PATIENT IS BOSA?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Bosa rebounded so well from his 2020 tear of his left knee\u2019s ACL that he won 2022 NFL Defensive Player of the Year honors and then the richest deal in 49ers history (five years, $170 million). A lot of that money is riding on this season\u2019s comeback from right-knee reconstruction.<\/p>\n<p>By converting $21.4 million of base salary into a signing bonus in March and thus generating $17 million in cap space this year, Bosa is poised for even more contractual talk next offseason. His salary cap figure balloons to $54.9 million in 2027, the penultimate season of his contract.<\/p>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cObviously I got injured pretty early last year so there\u2019s plenty of time for me to really lay the groundwork for the long season,\u201d Bosa said two months ago about this patient approach to ACL recovery.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019ll obviously be on a pitch count with practice reps in camp. But he\u2019s a technician who relishes time to work on details, and the 49ers will benefit from his presence and mentorship of younger pass rushers.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5218\">Drucker: Money isn\u2019t the root of all political evil<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>NEW KID ON THE BLOCK<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Romello Height, a third-round pick, is viewed as a polished 25-year-old pass rusher, as testified by Bosa and Kocurek.<\/p>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll see once the pads truly come on and we get into real football,\u201d Kocurek said in March. \u201cHere in the spring, he\u2019s been a little bit ahead of the learning curve compared to other rookies we\u2019ve had in the past. Similar to Nick in 2019, he was advanced in some of the things he was taught at Ohio State. I see some of the same in Romello. \u00a0He\u2019s not making rookie mistakes from tech standpoint with footwork and hand placement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Height compiled 10 sacks last season at Texas Tech opposite David Bailey, the Jets\u2019 No. 2 overall pick and a Stanford transfer. Before that, Height hopped from Auburn to USC to Georgia Tech. He\u2019ll open camp wearing No. 94, which Pro Football Hall of Famer Charles Haley debuted in 40 years ago.<\/p>\n<p><strong>INJURY LISTS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Candidates to open camp on the Physically Unable to Perform list, simply based off last season\u2019s injuries and not their rehab status, are Bosa, Mykel Williams (ACL), Keion White (ankle) and Alfred Collins (shoulder).<\/p>\n<p>Williams, last year\u2019s first-round pick, tore his ACL on Nov. 2 at the Giants\u2019 MetLife Stadium, so his restart could come a month or so into the season and thus he figures to spend camp doing individual conditioning. White looks fully recovered after being shot in the ankle at a Super Bowl afterparty. Shoulder repairs can be tricky so Collins\u2019 timeline is uncertain but the 49ers are high on him after a strong rookie year.<\/p>\n<p><strong>OTHERS IN THE ROTATION<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Both starting defensive ends are coming off ACL repairs, so the 49ers need depth and support. Are Height, Sam Okuayinonu and ex-Bengals reserve Cam Sample the best options in the rotation, or could undrafted rookie Mikail Kamara surprise in that mix<\/p>\n<p>Two other undrafted rookies, James Thompson Jr. and Bryson Eason, are increasing the competition on the interior with Odighizuwa, Collins, C.J. West, fourth-rounder Gracen Halton, Sebastian Valdez and Evan Anderson.<\/p>\n<p><strong>REFINING THE SCHEME<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve always been a four-down front that aligns in a wide-9. I\u2019d anticipate us still being a four-down team but also utilizing 5-down. It\u2019s no secret. Raheem\u2019s used it in his career going way back to L.A. and Atlanta. \u2026 Raheem has streamlined this thing where our techniques don\u2019t change a whole lot. We\u2019re still going to be an attack front. We\u2019re just going to utilize multiple fronts, 5-down, 4-down, mix it up, keep people honest.\u201d \u2013 Kocurek<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5216\">Horoscopes 23 July, 2026: Woody Harrelson, speak from the heart<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nick Bosa headlines a list of several 49ers defensive linemen whose comebacks will be closely monitored in training camp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>49ers need D-linemen who will complement Nick Bosa&#8217;s ACL recovery - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5222\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"49ers need D-linemen who will complement Nick Bosa&#8217;s ACL recovery - 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