SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 18: San Francisco 49ers' Nick Bosa (97) celebrates his sack against the Seattle Seahawks in the fourth quarter at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
The 49ers gave Nick Bosa everything he wanted in his new mega contract.
In return, the Niners will receive the NFL’s best defensive player for the next six seasons — the peak of his career.
Sounds like a fair deal to me.
The 49ers and the 25-year-old reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year have reportedly agreed on a five-year, $170 million extension with a whopping $122.5 million guaranteed. There’s no word yet on if he received any of the sinks in Levi’s Stadium as part of this new deal, which will, starting next season, make him the highest-paid non-quarterback in the league. The new contract also ends Bosa’s 44-day holdout.
Now, was it wise for the 49ers to effectively wait until the last moment to pay their superstar player?
No. It was unbecoming for the organization and general manager John Lynch, who should have wrapped up this record-setting deal months ago. The Niners made a saga out of something relatively straightforward by trying to press leverage they didn’t have (as proven by the contract figures). The front office also left Niners head coach Kyle Shanahan in a challenging spot heading into a season. He said Wednesday that he was “not having good thoughts” about the Bosa situation heading into the weekend.
But does any of that matter now that Bosa is signed?
Absolutely not.
With this massive distraction officially eliminated by an equally massive contract extension, the 49ers can finally turn their full focus to not just winning games — they have one on Sunday in Pittsburgh — but winning the Super Bowl.
For Bosa, nothing less than what he signed for Wednesday would have worked.
For the Niners, nothing less than raising the Lombardi Trophy at the end of the season will do. And they need Bosa to do that.
The Niners’ defense was built around Bosa. And this team was built around a great defense.
With that great defense in tow, the Niners’ title window is wide open right now. The issue is that those windows tend to slam shut sooner than expected.
If getting Bosa back in uniform required paying No. 97 more than Detroit quarterback (and former Ram) Jared Goff, so be it.
You can’t say he’s not worth the money. In the Ohio State product’s three healthy seasons, the Niners have been to three NFC Championship Games and a Super Bowl. In Shanahan’s three seasons without the All-Pro defensive end, the Niners are 16-32.
Coincidence? Maybe.
We discovered what it was worth to the 49ers not to find out.
“We all knew Nick was going to get rewarded like he did,” Shanahan said Wednesday. “Pumped up about it… I know he’s trying to get here as fast as possible.”
Now to the business at hand — the 2023 NFL season:
While Bosa might end up on a limited snap count for Week 1, there’s no concern — zilch, nada, none — about his ability to play at an elite level this season despite skipping all of training camp.
Defensive ends don’t really run plays, and Bosa has never exactly been out of shape.
He’ll be back in the Bay by Thursday and he’ll be ready to wreck right tackles and wallop quarterbacks the second he walks off the plane.
“We’ll be smart with it,” Shanahan said of possibly limiting Bosa’s snap count. But expect Bosa to be in uniform Sunday in Pittsburgh.
“He’d have to have a beer belly and be out of shape or something [to miss the game],” Shanahan said. “That’s not in Bosa’s DNA.”
Originally published at Dieter Kurtenbach