Rookie Nick Bosa is seeing more playing time in recent weeks with the injuries that have struck the San Francisco 49ers defensive line. He averaged about 38 snaps per game through his first eight games this season. Since then, that average has increased to nearly 60, including a season-high 68 this past weekend against the New Orleans Saints.
Bosa dealt with an ankle injury at the start of the season, a setback that slowed him down a bit during the early weeks. He emerged from the 49ers' bye week feeling healthier and went on a run that included six sacks in four games.
Bosa has been limited to just one since then, and his sack total has sat at eight since Week 12 against the Green Bay Packers, and that was his lone sack in the past six games. Bosa remains among the top 10 most-productive pass rushers among edge defenders this season, according to Pro Football Focus, but his rank drops to No. 60 when you only look at the numbers since Week 9.
Robert Saleh was asked on Thursday if he's noticed any drop-off in the rookie pass rusher's productivity or play. The defensive coordinator believes much of it has to do with Bosa garnering more attention from opposing offenses.
"No, teams just, I've never seen a rookie get more attention than he's gotten," Saleh responded. "The amount of chips he gets, the amount of double teams, I've never seen anything like it. I can't believe teams are afraid of a rookie, but that's their problem."
Head coach Kyle Shanahan agrees that Bosa may be attracting more attention from the opposition.
"I thought he was unbelievable last game (against the Saints)," Shanahan said on Friday. "Not all over the stat sheet by any means, but when you're as good of a player as he is, and what he's put on tape, people are going to make it a very strong point to not allow you to get on the stat sheet.
"I think he's learning through that. I think earlier in the season, he got a little surprised when he was chipped. Now, he expects it, and I think he's gotten a lot better at that.
"I mean, they had a huge game plan to take care of him last week, and I still think he impacted that game as much as anyone on our defense."
In addition to his eight sacks this season, Bosa has racked up 38 tackles, two passes defensed, an interception, and a forced fumble through 13 games. With several members of the 49ers' relentless defensive front now done for the season, and other ailing players trying to work their way back, Bosa's in-game workload won't slow any time soon.
"He's been doing a good job with it," Saleh said. "He's one of the more relentless human beings in terms of taking care of his body, all the regen stuff that they've got. He does a fantastic job with it. You'd like to limit his reps, obviously. We want to make sure that he's not taking too much of a load.
"A lot of things have been happening, especially over the second half of the season, where it's kind of forcing our hand. But he does, credit to him, he does a great job getting himself ready to play on Sunday so he can handle it."