Nick Bosa had an NFL-high 18.5 sacks during the 2022 season. Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images CNN —
San Francisco 49ers defensive end and reigning AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year Nick Bosa has agreed to a five-year, $170 million contract extension, making him the highest paid defensive player in NFL history, ESPN’s Adam Schefter and NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport reported Wednesday, citing unnamed sources.
Both Schefter and Rapoport report the deal includes $122.5 million guaranteed.
CNN has sought comment from the 49ers and Bosa’s agent regarding the deal’s terms.
San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters he was three minutes late to Wednesday’s news conference because he was just informed of the signing.
“Obviously pumped up about it,” Shanahan said. “I thought it would come to fruition sometime last week and it didn’t, which made me nervous, made me kind of move on with it just because I thought I had to. But I mean, we all knew Nick was going to get rewarded like he did.”
He said Bosa had earned the massive contract.
“He’s gonna earn it going forward, too,” he said.
Bosa wrote on Instagram after the reported deal, “Shall we.”
His teammates happily responded.
Offensive lineman Trent Williams wrote, “Yes we shall !!!!!!!! Let’s gooooo.”
Tight end George Kittle added, “171 holy Toledo Batman” and defensive lineman Arik Armstead posted, “Lesssss goooo.”
Last season, Bosa had an NFL-high 18.5 sacks. The sack total was the second most in franchise history for a single season. (Aldon Smith is tops with 19.5 sacks in 2012.)
In four seasons with the club, Bosa has 156 total tackles, 43 sacks, eight forced fumbles and one interception in 51 regular season games, 49 of which were starts.
San Francisco begins its 2023 NFL season at the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday.
Bosa is set to make $34 million per year, besting the average salary of Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald, who earns an average of $31,666,667 per season, according to sports salary tracking website Spotrac.
Bosa’s contract is ninth richest overall for total value. The top eight deals all belong to quarterbacks.