As can be expected, 49ers star edge rusher Nick Bosa is feeling down after suffering a season-ending injury in San Francisco’s 16-15 win over the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday.

Coach Kyle Shanahan confirmed reports that Bosa had torn his ACL for the second time in his NFL career while speaking to reporters on a Monday afternoon conference call.

Shanahan revealed that he talked to Bosa Sunday night and the 2022 NFL Defensive Player of the Year is obviously “bummed out,” while also lauding his resilience.

“I talked to Nick last night. You know, it wasn’t confirmed until this morning,” Shanahan told reporters. “I haven’t been able to see him yet today, but talked to him last night, he had a pretty good idea of what we were going to find out today. But obviously he is bummed out and down, but Nick can handle anything and he is going to handle it like he always does, which will be great.

“But obviously he was bummed out from it not being able to finish out this year, and especially how good of a year he was having so far. And Yetur [Gross-Matos] has been out there the last three weeks, so hopefully as he keeps going and doesn’t have any setbacks, hopefully he can continue to progress with that and handle more reps. But, we’ve got to see how that goes.”

Shanahan also clarified he’s unsure exactly how Bosa’s injury occurred, but mentioned the seven-year NFL veteran had a good idea of the extent of the damage after already suffering two torn ACLs during his football career.

“No, he didn’t explain it to me. It’s just how those things happen a lot, especially with ACLs,” Shanahan said. “They happen on air the majority of the time. I know it was his right leg, and he just got it caught right there and went right away. A guy who’s done it two times before, he was pretty confident that he did it. You could tell walking on the field, seeing his face and I could tell talking to him last night just how sure he was of it and knowing his body, then an MRI confirmed it this morning.”

Bosa took to Instagram with a somber post on Monday afternoon, reflecting the difficulty of the situation after news of his season-ending injury dominated the 49ers landscape a day after a gritty victory sealed a 3-0 start to the 2025 NFL season.

Bosa is one of the NFL’s most talented defensive players and had gotten off to a tremendous start this season making a significant impact in every appearance before his unceremonious exit on Sunday.

While there never is good news from a tragic injury like Bosa’s, the silver lining, if any, is that the tear itself was a clean one, which typically makes the recovery and rehabilitation process faster and easier.

“I was told it’s as clean as it gets,” Shanahan said of Bosa’s ACL tear. “So in terms of if you have an ACL, I was told that it’s the kind that you want.”

Download and follow the 49ers Talk Podcast