The San Francisco 49ers begin their 2025 NFL regular-season schedule on Sunday on the road against the Seattle Seahawks, and they hope it will be the first step of a return to competitiveness after what happened last year.
They went 6-11 and missed the playoffs in 2024, and a lot of that was because of a seemingly endless string of injuries to key players. But their defense, which had been their strong suit in recent seasons, faltered greatly and was also a major factor in their poor showing.
Star defensive end Nick Bosa is one of the holdovers for a 49ers defense that looks somewhat different this season, especially up front. He told the media that he wants to “be dominant” and that he’s “aiming for everything” this season.
Nick Bosa’s expectations for the season: “I’ve reached the pinnacle of success…I’ve won DPOY… I just want to be dominant. I want to be really thought of as one of the best — that’s what you look for in this league.”Via: @KNBR pic.twitter.com/PgLssP64Cj
— OurSF49ers (@OurSf49ers) September 3, 2025
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As recently as 2022, Bosa was dominant. That was the year when he led the NFL with 18.5 sacks and was named the Defensive Player of the Year. But since then, his production has fallen off a bit.
While his 10.5 sacks in 2023 and nine sacks last year weren’t exactly weak numbers, they seem below par for a player of Bosa’s caliber.
2025 Could Be a Resurgent Year for Bosa
But there is some reason to feel hopeful that Bosa will see a bump in his production and impact this year. For one thing, Robert Saleh, who was the Niners’ defensive coordinator from 2017 to 2020, is back in that role, and he is expected to revitalize the team’s overall defense.
The Niners have also brought in some help on the defensive line. They signed Bryce Huff, who had 10 sacks with the New York Jets in 2023 when Saleh was the head coach there, and they’re hopeful that rookie Mykel Williams, who is slated to start at the other end of the defensive line, will become a stud.
Huff and Williams could attract enough attention from opposing blockers to allow Bosa to spring loose and apply more pressure off the edge than he has in a little while.
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San Francisco was 29th in points allowed last year after ranking third in 2023 and first in 2022 in that category. Becoming an excellent defensive team again has to be as big a goal as any other for the team as it hopes to resume contending for its sixth Super Bowl championship.
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