Ex-NFL ‘Big Contract Guy’ Sounds off on 49ers Nick Bosa Frustration

Getty Nick Bosa, 49ers pass rusher and owner of the NFL's biggest non-QB contract

As a pass-rushing NFL star who was granted a big contract, ex-defensive lineman Chris Long knows a little about the kind of frustration that the 49ers’ Nick Bosa must be feeling, given that the star former Defensive Player of the Year enters Week 8 with his own big contract and just 2.5 sacks to his credit.

Long was, in 2012, given a four-year, $60 million extension from the Rams, after he posted a breakthrough year with 13.0 sacks in 2011. He played well the next year but was not putting up big sack numbers and had just 7.5 sacks in the first 14 weeks of the season, before posting four sacks in the final two weeks.

Bosa, of course, signed the biggest-ever contract given to a non-quarterback just before the start of the regular season after a summer-long holdout. The deal was worth $170 million over five years. But the contract has been a bit of a curse, too. He always received special attention from offensive lines, but this season, that attention has been ramped up.

“The pressure on Nick Bosa right now to perform must be huge,” Long said on his “Green Light With Chris Long” podcast. “Not must be, it is—I know because I’ve been the big contract guy. Not to his degree … He’s got two and a half sacks and we all know sacks are not the end-all be-all. And they’re very dependent. (Minnesota) took him away, paid extra attention to him.”

Nick Bosa 49ers Contract Paying Him $13.6 Million per Sack

Bosa went from 9.0 sacks as a rookie to 15.5 in what was, essentially, his second season (he was out for all but two games in 2020) in 2021. Last year, Nick Bosa topped the NFL in sacks with 18.5, putting him in position to demand such a historic contract.

There is more to being a solid pass rusher than just putting up sacks. Pro Football Focus has him rated at 92.8, the second-best grade among all pass rushers in the NFL. According to Pro-Football Reference.com, Bosa has seven quarterback hurries and 12 knockdowns. That puts him on pace for 17 hurries, which would rate second-best in his career, and 29 knockdowns, which would be most in his career.

As for the notion that the holdout that preceded the contract somehow cost Bosa in terms of conditioning, coach Kyle Shanahan is not buying that.

“I look at how people move and whether they look in shape or as talented as the year before and he looks the exact same,” Shanahan said this week. “I don’t see anything different, I know the results haven’t been there. He’s got a couple opportunities missed, he’s got a couple opportunities that should have been an easy sack on and we left number one open too fast where he shouldn’t have been.”

‘Where’s Nick Bosa?’

The backing of PFF and Shanahan probably counts as small comfort to Nick Bosa, given the pressure that is on him because of his 49ers contract. Because, as Long noted, the bulk of NFL fans are not looking at PFF’s numbers or listening to Shanahan’s explanations.

They just expect to see big sack numbers.

“Nick Bosa has got to be feeling that, though, because every mouth-breathing fan in the NFL looks at that stat and says, ‘Where’s Nick Bosa?’” Long said. “The unfair thing about making that kind of money—or maybe it’s fair—is that people are gonna want to see that number or else you’re not going to be able to justify the money.

“And I know he’s going through it. I remember having slumps where I was like, it affected my mental health looking at that number and I know he’s going through it.”