The 49ers are less than three weeks out from their season opener and reigning Defensive Player of the Year Nick Bosa has still not reported for training camp while he negotiates a long-term contract extension with San Francisco.
While Bosa’s holdout has lasted virtually the entire preseason, head coach Kyle Shanahan is unmoved from his stance on Aug. 7 when he said he wasn’t stressed about his star defensive end.
“No, not at all,” Shanahan said in an Aug. 7 press conference. “Because I don’t know if Bosa has ever done a training camp and he has done pretty good. It’s a little different when you’re a defensive lineman. Everybody wants people here and you want to do that stuff, but it doesn’t affect the team as much from a defensive end standpoint. I have as much confidence in Nick as any player I’ve ever been around in terms of how he prepares and everything. I know they’re going to get it right, both sides, and I’m excited for when I do see him.”
On Tuesday Shanahan said “nothing’s changed” in regards to his stance on Bosa, and brushed off the notion that he’s frustrated at all by the extended holdout.
“No, it’s going pretty much exactly how I expected it to go,” Shanahan said. Although he did say he’s hopeful the deal is done sooner rather than later.
This is uncharted territory for this 49ers front office. They’ve typically gotten their long-term deals done before or early on in training camp, so a prolonged holdout is new. The good news is there aren’t any indications that anyone on either side has soured on the idea of an extension.
Even if a deal does come to fruition over the next few days, the real problem may be whether Bosa is ready to play and stay healthy with such a truncated run-up to the regular season. While Shanahan is confident in the DE to come in ready to play, there won’t be any real answers on any physical impact of the holdout until Bosa is in uniform and playing.
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