For those who may have doubted, George Kittle has repeatedly said that his San Francisco 49ers teammate, Nick Bosa, is pretty good at football. Unfortunately, fans didn't see much of the defensive end in his second NFL season, as his sophomore campaign was cut short by an ACL injury.
While injury after injury followed Bosa's, the loss of the 2019 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year was greatly felt throughout the roster. San Francisco finished with just six wins after entering the season with Super Bowl aspirations.
NFL Network analyst Brian Baldinger joined 95.7 The Game on Tuesday and was asked which 49ers player he is most excited to see on Sunday against the Detroit Lions. He answered before the question could be finished.
"Bosa!" Baldinger quickly responded. "Got to be Nick Bosa. I don't have to think about this. Like, I want to see Nick. I want to see ... what kind of shape he's in. ... I want to see if he looks like the same guy [as] the last time we saw him really play. I know he got hurt against the [Jets in Week 2 last season]. But I want to see Nick play.
"To me, he is the one guy—we saw it last year—that cannot be replaced on that football team. The way that he plays, the energy, the effort, the talent, he's the one irreplaceable player. And he makes everyone in the whole building better. He makes John Lynch better. He makes Kyle Shanahan better. He makes Javon Kinlaw better. He makes everybody better. And so, that's the one guy I can't wait to watch."
Bosa is essentially entering his second NFL season after missing most of last season. It's hard to think of him as an inexperienced player because of how experienced he looked right away as a rookie and the immediate impact he made. Still, there are always things to work on. There are always areas to improve. And Bosa is no different.
"He plays with such power," Baldinger explained. "Can he play with more finesse? I know he can, but sometimes you just want to run guys over, and there's a place for that. And then there's some guys that you just want to be able to literally just do a two-hand swipe to, and just eliminate them. I just think there's a balance between power and finesse at that position. He has the ability to do both, but I think knowing when to do that, knowing when the game is in the balance."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Baldinger below.