The San Francisco 49ers are practicing in Youngstown, Ohio this week. The thought is that staying on the East Coast between road games will help the players come game day because they won't have to worry about adjusting to the time change.

Rookie defensive end Nick Bosa hasn't practiced this week. There is still one practice left before the team departs Youngstown for Cincinnati. Bosa missed the entire preseason due to an ankle injury, so Sunday was his first in-game action. General manager John Lynch revealed on Thursday morning that the rookie got dinged up on the first play of the game.

"He had done a really nice job through his rehab, and when you have high-ankle sprains, sometimes you get dinged, and it can affect you for a little bit," Lynch said. "He did early in the game. On the first play, he actually planted the wrong way. He didn't roll it, but it hurt him a little bit."

Bosa finished the game but left Tampa, Florida with some ankle soreness.


Lynch sounded pretty optimistic that Bosa will play on Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals. Defensive coordinator Robert Saleh would like the rookie to get at least one practice in before throwing him back into a game.

Head coach Kyle Shanahan, like Lynch, sounds optimistic that Bosa will be out on the field with his teammates at Paul Brown Stadium on Sunday. He joined KNBR on Thursday and discussed the rookie's chances of playing.

"We'll have a good idea off of practice tomorrow," Shanahan said on the "Tolbert, Krueger and Brooks" show. "We've had to keep him out these last two days. He's been a little sore recovering from the game than we anticipated. We've had these last two practices on turf, too, which we also want to be a little bit smart about with some people when they're coming back from injuries.

"I still feel pretty optimistic about it, just talking with him. We're going to let it play out. We'll see (how he's feeling) tomorrow when we wake up. Hopefully, he'll be able to practice. I think he will, and if he does, I feel we could feel pretty optimistic about Sunday."


Shanahan also discussed Dante Pettis, who played in just two snaps on Sunday after dealing with a minor groin injury. The coach has already said he had hoped for more playing time for the second-year wide receiver. That should be the case against the Bengals.


"He's had a full week of practice, and he's had a real good week of practice," Shanahan said. "Dante had a little bit of a setback with his injury. He got some practice in last week, but we knew he was going to be limited in the game.

"We definitely planned on playing him more than two plays, so that was something I was disappointed with after the game, that we as a coaching staff didn't get him in more. That's kind of how the game played out, but that definitely wasn't the plan going in.

"You'll see him a lot more this week. He had a full, healthy week — to me, one of his best weeks, and we need him. Dante's one of our better players. I know he's had some ups and downs throughout this offseason, but we believe in Dante, and even though he's had some setbacks, we're counting on him to come around.

"He's putting in the work in practice, and he's been getting better each day, getting back to a little bit more where he left off last year. Once he does that, I know he's only going to get better."


You can listen to the entire conversation with Shanahan below.



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