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SANTA CLARA — What was that Mike Tomlin said a week or so ago? The Browns are gonna Browns? Well, along the same lines, the Niners are gonna Niners.
There’s no other way to explain the endless cycle of injuries.
Another season that started with legitimate Super Bowl aspirations, backed up by their play in the first couple weeks, officially went off the rails Friday with the news of their latest blow.
A defensive line that was already on life support lost its beating heart when Nick Bosa pulled his calf in practice on Thursday. The 49ers will be without their ferocious edge rusher Sunday against the Cardinals and for some time beyond that, coach Kyle Shanahan said after practice Friday.
Bosa was going through individual warmups before the Niners held a walkthrough Thursday when he suffered the injury doing high-knees, according to Shanahan. He is expected to miss “around a few weeks,” Shanahan said, but the 49ers opted to keep him on their active roster.
San Francisco’s injured reserve is already so crowded that it risks running out of spots for players designated to return. Teams are allotted eight spots, and there are already seven 49ers on IR that they hope to get back, plus Bosa and two others dealing with high-ankle sprains.
It’s an absurd amount of attrition this early in the season, even for a team as terminally injured as the 49ers. The losses hurt and the roster crunch is real, but the Niners have so far been able to count on their next-man-up philosophy to cruise to a pair of 20-point wins to start the season.
So much for that without their five-time Pro Bowl defensive end and 2022 Defensive Player of the Year. There is no player — not even quarterback Brock Purdy — as irreplaceable as Bosa.
Especially not when five of the other 10 defensive linemen on the 49ers’ initial 53-man roster have also gone down, and with the edge rusher supposed to line up opposite Bosa, Mykel Williams, ineligible to come off the Physically Unable to Perform list until at least Week 5.
“Losing Bosa was rough,” Shanahan said in the understatement of the season. “Losing six out of the 10 D-linemen in the last two weeks was a little unusual. … I do understand the challenge of not just losing Bosa but the number of guys there in two weeks. That will be a challenge on everyone else. We’ve got some new guys in here that will have to step up.”
The 49ers’ defensive line has been decimated by injuries to C.J. West (bone chips/knee), Sam Okuayinonu (broken foot), Alfred Collins (torn patellar tendon) and James Thompson Jr. (ankle sprain). Their pass rush took another blow when rookie edge rusher Romello Height was ruled out, too, with a broken hand he suffered in last week’s win over the Dolphins.
San Francisco already made one move to stem the losses by signing defensive tackle Naquan Jones off the Vikings’ practice squad, but they’ll have to do more just to have enough bodies on Sunday, whether it be elevating someone like Sebastian Valdez off their practice squad or bringing in outside help. The 49ers have already been in contact with free agent Leonard Floyd.
Either way, they’re in a bad spot — right back where they were last season. Bosa tore his ACL in Week 3 and their pass rush vanished soon thereafter, mustering a meager 20 sacks all year, last in the NFL. Yet, the 49ers hardly addressed the situation in the offseason, instead putting their faith in two players — Bosa and Williams — coming back from knee surgeries.
Bosa had yet to record a sack through two games, but his four pressures are second only to Osa Odighizuwa. As a team, the 49ers’ 31.6% pressure rate ranks fifth out of 32 teams.
Maybe Shanahan and general manager John Lynch had plans to make a splash with a midseason acquisition. Except that the issues have arisen so early in the season that even teams that might take their calls closer to the trade deadline still have hopes of their own.
If they were eyeing Maxx Crosby, for example, good luck convincing the Raiders to trade the five-time Pro Bowler without them first crashing back to earth from their 2-0 start. On the other hand, might the Chargers make Khalil Mack available if they don’t turn around their season?
In all likelihood, the 49ers will have to wait and see. For now, they’re in a sort of purgatory.
On the bright side, Shanahan was confident Bosa would be back this season, unlike last year. In theory, they only have to tread water the next two weeks before Williams could give them a boost. West, Thompson and Height are all expected to return at some point, too.
Despite the injuries, the 49ers must have felt like they were dreaming with a dominant win over the division-rival Rams and no dropoff against the Dolphins last week. The first time the Niners have begun a season with back-to-back wins of 20-or-more points only fueled their big hopes.
In under three weeks, they got a rude awakening to what has been their more common reality.
“I know we haven’t had good luck these last couple years,” Shanahan said. “It’s started out bad, so hopefully we’re getting it out of the way and it’ll get better as the year goes. I’m happy that we haven’t lost those guys for the whole year.”
