Nick Bosa is not in the building on Wednesday; his Week 1 status is in doubt

NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport tweeted that 49ers star edge rusher Nick Bosa isn’t in the building Wednesday for team meetings with his teammates. Rapoport added that Bosa’s holdout could stretch into the regular season, which puts his status for Week 1 in doubt as the 49ers and Bosa attempt to work out a record-setting contract extension.

Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin isn’t buying that Bosa won’t play, as his team is preparing for Bosa to be in the lineup.

It’s difficult to blame Bosa in this situation. We haven’t heard the clichés like, “play out your contract.” Bosa has outplayed his rookie deal and deserves to be one of if not the highest-paid defenders in the NFL.

The question is, how were the 49ers not prepared for this? General manager John Lynch said the team had budgeted a certain allotment for Bosa’s contract. But were they seriously not expecting him to ask for...everything?

Slow starts have been a theme under Kyle Shanahan, and it’s something the team is aware of. One would think getting Bosa in the building would alleviate any slow start.

Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer said, “I think smart people on both sides get this done Friday or Saturday.”

if I had to guess, I’d bet it’s not just the raw dollars. I’d think it’s also the guarantees, the cashflow, the bonus structure/timing—all the stuff that’s important to an agent (for recruiting), a player (in how it can force a team to stick to its word and/or make early decisions on a guy’s future) and a team (because of precedents these things set with other players).

Now, both the 49ers and Bosa’s side have been disciplined about keeping the details of talks quiet, much moreso than in some other high-profile negotiations going on. So it’s hard to tell exactly what the problem is. But I’d bet there’s plenty of agreement here too, mostly because there really isn’t much argument over how good Bosa is.

And that’s why I think smart people on both sides get this done Friday or Saturday.

I’d lean toward Breer being right, with Bosa signing a last-minute deal and everyone moving on and forgetting about this holdout by Week 3.