By most measures, the 49ers’ 2023 season was a rousing success. The team went 12-5, ranked No. 3 offensively in the NFL in points scored, and No. 3 in the league defensively in points allowed. They won two playoff games and faced the defending-champion Chiefs in the Super Bowl, ultimately losing in an overtime thriller.
We know all that. There is a lot to be happy with for the 49ers coming out of the 2023 season. Yet, if you got the sense that there was a bit of frustration that the team was not quite as good as it could have been, well, you’re not alone on that.
Star pass rusher Nick Bosa, for one, felt that something was off all year, especially on the defensive side of the ball, where the 49ers struggled to stop the run and keep everyone on the same page. But Bosa also confessed to not quite being himself, not after missing all of the preseason in a contract holdout.
“I felt like the defense was the weak link last year—not that we weren’t a good defense, but I think when you’re playing 49ers football, the defense is the strength,” Bosa said, speaking on Sirius XM’s 49ers Training Camp Tour. “And to not be that throughout the season and sometimes in the playoffs is something that me and Fred (Warner) are not OK with. …
“It was a little frustrating last year in defensive meetings because when one group, one unit was on it, somebody wasn’t. You’ve got to be tied in.”
49ers Defense Faced 3rd-Most Passes in NFL
The 49ers’ defense was probably affected to an extent by the offense because of its potency. The 49ers scored 115 points in the first quarter of games last season, and allowed 56. They entered the second quarter with an average lead of 3.5 points. By halftime, that was a 6.7-point lead. Facing a touchdown deficit, then many teams tossed aside the running game and passed against the 49ers.
The 49ers faced 621 passing attempts in 2023, the third-most in the NFL.
Bosa had 10.5 sacks, which earned him a Pro Bowl spot, but was well below the kind of tallies to which he is accustomed. He led the NFL with 18.5 sacks the previous season, and got consistent added attention—double-teams and chip blocks—from opposing offensive lines.
“Last year definitely felt a little frustrating,” Bosa said. “I don’t think I am ever happy looking back at film from a year. But last year there’s definitely some games that I was frustrated. I think some of the games, you think you have really put yourself in position to have a good stat day and it’s just not happening. And then there’s game where it is not gonna happen either way, the game isn’t going that way.”
Nick Bosa Was Hurt by Missing Training Camp
Bosa said the 49ers’ signing of Leonard Floyd, who had 10.5 sacks in Buffalo last year and has had at least 9.0 sacks in each of the last four seasons, will help balance the attention he gets from opposing offensive lines.
But Bosa also laid some of last year’s troubles on himself. He held out of 49ers training camp as he waited for a new contract last summer, which eventually produced a record-setting five-year, $170 million deal.
He admitted that from Week 1 against the Steelers, he was not himself in the early going.
“Without camp last year, it’s tough to really hone in on your skills and be ready to win in every way you want to be able to during the season,” Bosa said. “So I think I am already off to a better start. I felt confident, just because I am confident in myself as a player, that I could just show up and play without a practice.
“But I was humbled against Pittsburgh, for sure. And it took me a while to kind of get going because it is hard to catch up during the season.”
