A leg injury forced Nick Bosa to miss much of training camp. The San Francisco 49ers' second-year defensive end returned to practice this week and is expected to play during Sunday's season opener against the Arizona Cardinals.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan, at one point, said the team was initially concerned about the injury after it happened, thinking it may have been more severe than it turned out to be. The 49ers were cautious with the reigning NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year and held him out of practices to make sure he was ready for this week.
Bosa spoke with reporters on Wednesday and was asked how concerned he was about the injury.
"Very low concern, especially two weeks ago," Bosa responded. "I had some time there that I could rest up and be ready. I know the training that I do in the offseason is going to help me get through things like this, and I think I'm past it completely, and I'm excited that it happened just in time."
A healthy Nick Bosa is good news for the 49ers and bad news for the Cardinals.
"Nick is tremendous," Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury told 49ers reporters on Wednesday morning via a conference call. "He had an incredible year last year, just got better and better. And I'm sure going into year two, the game will slow down for him tremendously."
The 49ers hope Bosa can help slow down talented Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray, who can be a lot to handle for opposing defenses.
Bosa was asked why he feels San Francisco's defense is better equipped to deal with the athletic passer this season.
"Just because we know what we're facing," Bosa answered. "Obviously, we knew he was mobile last year, but now we know where he likes to go, where he likes to roll out, where he likes to escape. Just all the little things like that. Then we just have a better plan this year of how to stop him, and get to those third-and-longs that we want to get to."
The 49ers have wide receiver Richie James and running back JaMychal Hasty mimicking the Cardinals quarterback during practice. They were better choices than the team's two backup quarterbacks.
"We have Richie. I think he's going to do some of the zone reads," Bosa explained. "Hasty, our new running back. I think Kyle said that they might come over to the scout team and give some (looks) because Nick (Mullens) and C.J. (Beathard) aren't cutting it with the speed."
