49ers

49ers DE Nick Bosa suffered a season-ending torn ACL in Week 3’s win over the Cardinals. San Francisco HC Kyle Shanahan is confident the rest of their roster will step up in Bosa’s absence. 

“You don’t just replace a guy like Nick,” Shanahan said, via ProFootballTalk. “It just puts — you know, everyone’s got to continue to get better at everything. It’s the same thing I’d be preaching if we did have Nick too. When you lose your better players, it gets harder, but I also expect throughout this year all of our players to get better as it goes. That’s stressed even that much more when you lose a great one like Nick. Lots of guys obviously will have to step it up as it goes, but I believe that’ll be more by committee than any individual.”

Shanahan said they could examine the trade market for another edge rusher. 

“There’s got to be trade options that make sense for you and another team, but you can’t just do that stuff just to do it.”

Shanahan added that they will need their younger players to step up and voiced praise for Mykel Williams, Bryce Huff, and Sam Okuayinonu.

“We needed guys to step it up to play along with Nick, and now that he’s out, you need them that much more,” Shanahan said. “But I had definitely been happy with those guys. I think they’ve done better each week. I thought Mykel [Williams] had a really good game yesterday. I think [Bryce] Huff’s done some real good things, Sam [Okuayinonu], all our edge players I think have been contributing and hopefully they continue to get better throughout this year.”

• When examining teams who could be in the trade market ahead of this year’s deadline, ESPN’s Dan Graziano could see the 49ers looking for another edge rusher following DE Nick Bosa‘s knee injury. 

Cardinals

Cardinals HC Jonathan Gannon confirmed that RB James Conner will miss the rest of the season and requires surgery on his injured right foot. 

“You hate that it happens,” Gannon said, via Darren Urban of the team’s site. “I know he’ll take the right attitude and bounce back. Taking up that slack, both the player and the person, we’ll all have to collectively do it.”

Cardinals RB Trey Benson finished Week 3 with 125 yards on 21 carries. The running back feels like he could’ve been “more decisive” on some of his runs. 

“I could’ve been more decisive, but it takes time,” Benson said. “It’s my second year in the league. There is room for improvement.”

Cardinals OC Drew Petzing remains confident in their cast of running backs with Benson, Emari Demercado, and Bam Knight.

“I feel terrible for (James),” Petzing said. “Past that, I feel really good about the group. Trey, Emari, Bam, to pick up the slack knowing there were times in the last two years James has not been out there and they have stepped up. We need that to happen this year.”

Rams

The Rams suffered two blocked field goals in Week 3’s loss to the Eagles. Los Angeles HC Sean McVay points out that Philadelphia was able to penetrate the left side of their line and they lacked execution on their blocking assignments. 

“If you’re looking at it from the kicking lens, over the left side next to the long snapper, we gave up just a little bit of penetration,” McVay said, via ProFootballTalk. “Two of their big guys that are excellent being able to get some momentum, get up underneath, get penetration and be able to get their hands up. On both of those kicks, we were just a little bit high with our pad level, didn’t necessarily execute with the techniques and the fundamentals that we’re capable of. They ended up making those plays and they do a great job.”

McVay thinks the Eagles have always had a strong field goal defense unit. 

“That’s a phase that they’ve always been strong with. They’ve always leaned into that. You go back to even when Fletcher Cox was there, he was a big-time problem. Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis have done an excellent job of making their presence felt and it was unfortunate that that ended up occurring on two consecutive kicks. That would’ve been the difference in the game for us.”

McVay doesn’t have any doubt that K Joshua Karty will bounce back. 

“He is a mentally resilient guy,” McVay said. “I think what you realize is the field goal operation is a collective unit. We have to do a better job of the snap, hold, timing. I’m not saying we have to do a better job of that, but it takes the snap, the hold, the kick, takes great protection across the board, the timing, the trajectory of the kick. We make kicks as a unit. We miss kicks as a unit, and he’ll do a good job of responding like what he’s shown since he got here last year.”

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