49ers star DE Bosa takes big step toward return

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  Nick WagonerSep 2, 2026, 04:47 PM ET

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  Nick Wagoner is an NFL reporter at ESPN. Nick has covered the San Francisco 49ers since 2016, having previously covered the St. Louis Rams for 12 years, including three years (2013 to 2015) at ESPN. In over a decade with the company, Nick has led ESPN's coverage of the Niners' 2019 and 2023 Super Bowl run, Colin Kaepernick's protest, the Rams making Michael Sam the first openly gay player drafted to the NFL, Sam's subsequent pursuit of a roster spot and the team's relocation and stadium saga.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa took a big step toward returning to play Wednesday when he participated in a full practice for the first time since tearing his right anterior cruciate ligament in Week 3 of last season.

After the session, in which Bosa did individual drills and took part in team periods, he said he "felt great" and called his progress "very encouraging." Asked whether he intended to play in the Sept. 10 opener against the Los Angeles Rams in Melbourne, Australia, Bosa didn't make any definitive declarations but did say "after today, yeah, that was pretty good."

Bosa's recovery from the knee injury hasn't been linear. He was far enough along in his rehab that he didn't need to start the preseason on the physically unable to perform list and was doing individual drills on the side during the opening days of training camp in July.

But Bosa had a setback that the team originally described as soreness and then later added that he was dealing with knee tendinitis. On Wednesday, Bosa offered a deeper look into the series of fits and starts he's dealt with in his comeback.

"It was a long road," Bosa said. "There's some stuff I dealt with, with that patella tendon, and then I kind of ramped it a little too fast with the football stuff a month ago or whatever it was. And that kind of told me to back off. I've just been trying to get it as strong and myself as confident as I can to where I could rip the Band-Aid off and go to team stuff today."

On Monday, Niners coach Kyle Shanahan said that Bosa had mostly moved past the tendinitis in recent weeks and the team was working through a plan to get him back to practice so he could be available against the Rams.

Bosa said his participation in team drills Wednesday was particularly instructive in how he's doing in his recovery and left him feeling like he'd taken an important step.

"Once you get into team, there's no reservations, there's no compensation ... like there's no governor," Bosa said. "I felt that today. I remember my last ACL; there was a couple moments where you just have to go and you're kind of hoping for the best. Obviously, it's not going to be like anything crazy is going to happen, but you hope that your body is going to respond the way that you prepared it to. And there's a couple moments today where that happened. So, I'm just going to try and keep building, not get too up about it, but it was a great day."

The 49ers, of course, lean heavily on Bosa to generate a pass rush. Without him for all but two full games and parts of another, San Francisco finished last in the NFL in sacks (20) in 2025.

Left tackle Trent Williams said Bosa's return to practice Wednesday energized the team.

"It was great seeing him moving around, fresh legs," Williams said. "I feel like his mood was very uplifted today. You can tell he's feeling good out there. [It was] a good vote of confidence to have him back out there."

The next challenge for Bosa will be to make it through the 16-hour flight the team is set to take to Melbourne on Wednesday night. Bosa said he plans to use the "Game Ready" machine, which is a sleeve for his legs that combine compression and ice at the same time, a few times, ice his knees, use a foam roller and stretch as well as making sure he gets enough sleep.

From there, Bosa said the next step to returning to play will be participating in the four practices (Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday) the team has scheduled in Australia. The NFL will require the Niners to have an official injury report for the first time this season after Monday's practice.

"I haven't tried to think too far into the future lately because I honestly didn't know exactly how or when I was going to be back and how it was going to go," Bosa said. "It just kind of made me anxious and I didn't want to be let down or get too excited, but I'm sure I'm going to be really excited once I get a week of practice under my belt."

Elsewhere on the injury front, the Niners welcomed receiver Mike Evans (adductor), fullback Kyle Juszczyk (broken finger) and cornerback Ephesians Prysock (shoulder) back to practice Wednesday.

Tight end George Kittle (Achilles) also completed another session and will travel with the team to Australia with potential to play in Week 1 also.