The 49ers finished the season on a 10-game winning streak and head into the playoffs as 9.5-point favorites against the Seahawks on Saturday.
A big reason for the 49ers’ success this season is their defense, led by Nick Bosa. Bosa led the league with 18.5 sacks this season – 2.5 more than anyone else – and finished the season strong with six sacks in four December games.
Bosa is assumably going to win the NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award as he’s a huge favorite, but it wasn’t always that way. At the end of November, NFL insider Brian Baldinger had Maxx Crosby as his NFL DPOY, and that caught Bosa’s eye.
Baldinger and Carl Dukes of the Audacy Original Podcast “In The Huddle” talked about Bosa’s mentality and shared a story about running into the 49ers defensive end prior to a game in early December.
“I was doing the Tampa - San Francisco game (in Week 14) and I saw Nick Bosa on the field. He kind of walks by and he nudges me and he goes ‘So you think Maxx Crosby is the defensive player of the year?’ So he heard what I had said at that time,” Baldinger said (11:12 in player above). “I go ‘Nick, look, you’re right in the conversation. I’m not excluding you but Maxx plays every play.’ He goes ‘Yeah, he does, except I’m getting ready to go win a Super Bowl.’”
Bosa was coming off a three-sack game in Miami for the 49ers’ fifth-straight win. He didn’t sack Tom Brady in the 35-7 blowout, but he put Baldy on notice.
“So when Nick said that, it kind of said like OK, this is Nick’s time of the year. OK, you get 18.5 sacks, you can be the defensive player of the year in the regular season, but his goal is way bigger than this,” Baldinger said. “It’s about marching to the playoffs and winning Super Bowl LVII. That’s his mentality. So watch what he does now, now that it’s Nick Bosa’s time of the year.”
It’s not just the mentality of Bosa. Baldinger believes that the 49ers have been on one mission: to win the Super Bowl.
“I think a lot of guys feel like that for the 49ers. I think Fred Warner feels like that. I think there are certain guys with the mentality that they’re there to win a Super Bowl,” he said. “A lot of guys are there to get stats and get wins. This team, collectively, is there to win a Super Bowl.
The 49ers will start their road to Super Bowl LVII on Saturday at home against the Seahawks.
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