SANTA CLARA, Calif. — He looks better than he did before he got hurt.That was Trent Williams’ assessment of longtime teammate/practice opponent Nick Bosa, who practiced Sunday for the first time since tearing his right ACL on Sept. 21.“I can’t really tell he had an injury and came back from anything,” Williams said. “Most people with a knee injury that catastrophic, when they come back, you can see something, right? You can see it in the atrophy, you can see it in the muscle of the leg. You see something. And Bosa looks better than he did last year.”Bosa was symbolic of the San Francisco 49ers’ first practice of training camp in that he was among several high-profile players back on the field after missing the spring session because of injury.Fellow defensive end Keion White, linebackers Fred Warner, Dre Greenlaw, Tatum Bethune and Luke Gifford, quarterback Mac Jones and center/guard Brett Toth also practiced after sitting out OTA practices in the spring.
Nick Bosa is cleared for practice after his Week 3 ACL tear last year. He’ll likely get ramped up in practice over the next two weeks or so pic.twitter.com/cckcYa3PVb
— Matt Barrows (@mattbarrows) July 26, 2026Williams’ observation is noteworthy considering the year Bosa had after tearing his left ACL in Week 2 of the 2020 season. The defensive end returned the next year trimmer and quicker, finishing the regular season with 15 1/2 sacks and a career-best 21 tackles for loss.“I’m not surprised,” Warner said of Bosa’s comeback. “Nick is one of the hardest workers, a guy who’s so in tune with his body. And having gone through that injury before, he obviously knows the steps.”Odds and ends• Three-quarters of the team’s presumptive starting defensive line isn’t practicing in full to begin training camp. Though Bosa took part in individual drills, he was held out of team situations while he ramps back up to full speed. Meanwhile, second-year players Mykel Williams (knee) and Alfred Collins (shoulder) began camp on the active/physically unable to perform list.
