49ers DE Nick Bosa out for season with torn ACL: Sources

By Vic Tafur, Dianna Russini and Matt Barrows

San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa is out for the season after tearing the ACL in his right knee, league sources said Monday. Results of an MRI exam Monday revealed the tear, after the team was uncertain about the severity of the injury following Sunday’s game against the Arizona Cardinals.

No other ligaments were torn, the source said, which should allow for a clean surgery and recovery.

It is the third serious knee injury of Bosa’s football career. In 2020, his second NFL season, he tore the ACL and the meniscus in his left knee, ending his season after two games. He also had surgery to repair a partially torn ACL in his right knee in 2015 while he was a senior at St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Bosa left Sunday’s game late in the first quarter after being flattened on a double team. After limping back to the sideline and getting attention from trainers, he gave a thumbs-down gesture as he headed to the medical tent. He was initially deemed questionable to return before being ruled out after halftime.

Bosa, who turns 28 next month, finishes the 2025 season with two sacks and two forced fumbles — including one to seal the Week 1 win in Seattle — along with 17 tackles, four for a loss of yards and three quarterback hits. He has 64.5 career sacks, five Pro Bowl selections and one first-team All-Pro nod.

“It is extremely unfortunate,” defensive end Bryce Huff said after Sunday’s game, before the team knew the extent of the injury. “He’s been such a pillar of our defensive line, doing everything he can to help us get better and lead the way.

“So it’s extremely … it hurts me to see him hurting like that.”

Huff, with a sack Sunday and two on the season, and rookie Mykel Williams stepped up in Bosa’s absence against the Cardinals. Sixth-year veteran Yetur Gross-Matos, who has been playing well despite a knee injury that’s limited him to only two days of practice since the start of training camp, will also have a larger role.

The Niners have already been playing without quarterback Brock Purdy, tight end George Kittle and wide receivers Brandon Aiyuk and Jauan Jennings. They are 3-0 entering a Week 4 home game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Bosa has been here before

If there’s any silver lining to the injury, it’s that Bosa has bounced back well from his two previous ACL injuries.

A year after his high school surgery, he was named a freshman All-American at Ohio State after recording five sacks and seven tackles for loss. He also looked strong after his 2020 tear, recording 15.5 sacks and a career-high 21 tackles for loss in 2021 while starting all 17 games. The 2020 injury was more extensive than simply a tear to the anterior cruciate ligament, and the surgery was performed by Los Angeles-based orthopedist Neal ElAttrache, who now handles most of the 49ers’ ACL tears, including those to linebacker Curtis Robinson and Aiyuk last season. — Matt Barrows, 49ers senior writer

How will they replace him?

After Bosa left Sunday’s game, the 49ers leaned heavily on defensive ends Williams, Huff and Sam Okuayinonu, who led the 49ers with 6, 5 and 3 quarterback pressures, respectively. The 49ers also used Gross-Matos, who had spent most of Week 1 and 2 as a defensive tackle, as a defensive end Sunday.

The team also could elevate one of two defensive ends from the practice squad: Robert Beal Jr. or Trevis Gipson. — Barrows

(Photo: Kavin Mistry / Getty Images)

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