Nick Bosa was not on the practice field in Youngstown, Ohio with his San Francisco 49ers teammates on Thursday. The rookie defensive end is still dealing with some soreness from his NFL debut on Sunday, a game where he recorded his first quarterback sack as a pro.
Bosa wants to play on Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals. He is focused on playing, but the coaches probably know that rest might be the best bet to ensure he is healthy enough to do so. The 49ers have another practice scheduled for Friday and will then travel to Cincinnati.
It turns out, Bosa got a little dinged against the Buccaneers, according to general manager John Lynch, who joined 95.7 The Game on Thursday.
"He was sore coming out, and that was somewhat to be expected," Lynch said on the "Joe, Lo and Dibs" show. "He had done a really nice job through his rehab, and when you have high-ankle sprains, sometimes you get dinged, and it can affect you for a little bit. He did early in the game. On the first play, he actually planted the wrong way. He didn't roll it, but it hurt him a little bit.
"Nick battled through that and played at a really high level. He found out the hard way that (Buccaneers quarterback) Jameis (Winston) is hard to bring down, and could have potentially had three (sacks), and did a great job to come away with one.
"The thing I love about Nick is he was more upset about the two that he let get away than the one that he got. He did come out a little sore. Traveling and all that kind of amplified that a little bit. He's doing a really good job kind of getting that out of there.
"We'll see what he does today. He'll work kind of limited throughout the week, but he's fully intended on playing. As for the snaps, we'll kind of see how that goes."
As stated, Bosa didn't end up practicing on Thursday, but it sounds like Lynch remains hopeful the rookie pass rusher will at least be available in some capacity on Sunday. We'll know more when the team reveals its official injury report and projected availability of its injured players on Friday.
You can listen to the entire conversation with Lynch below.