49ers edge rusher Nick Bosa said he was ready for a normal workload after only a couple of days of practice last week, but he didn’t get it.
Bosa, who played an average of 47 snaps a game in 16 games last season, played 35 snaps in the season opener against the Steelers. He didn’t have three sacks like Steelers edge rusher T.J. Watt did in the game, but Bosa made two tackles and a quarterback hit and his mere presence aided his teammates, including Drake Jackson, who had three sacks.
“I thought he did a good job, especially for his first time back,” coach Kyle Shanahan said Monday, via David Bonilla of 49erswebzone.com. “I thought he played real well in the run game. [He] didn’t get a ton of opportunities in the pass game with the center going the other way or some chips, but forced that holding call on one, and we ended up declining it because [safety Talanoa Hufanga] got . . . that tackle for the loss of 5.
“But I thought it was a good first day back. Got out healthy and ready to get him back into the swing of things this week.”
The 49ers expect the reigning defensive player of the year to get a full workload this week.
“I think he will be,” Shanahan said. “I know he got 35 plays. He was full-go on those. He played like he was full-go. We just wanted to take into account the recovery and things like that after, so we’re really happy to be able to get a win and play the way we did with reaching the play count or not exceeding the part that we had planned on.
“Hopefully, he’ll spend these two days recovering. I’m sure he’s going to be sore today, sore tomorrow, just from doing that, and hopefully, he’ll be fresh enough to come out and start getting to go at practice Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.”
