Bosa Practiced, Every Name You Know Was Out There, and the Plane Leaves Tonight

Final practice before the flight to Melbourne and the head count finally came back whole. Bosa in team periods for the first time in a month, Kittle for a third straight day, Mike Evans in uniform, Juszczyk back. The only guys on the side were depth and rookies.

I said ask me Tuesday. It took until Wednesday, but the answer is yes. Nick Bosa practiced. Not the side field, not the trainer's tent, not a jog in a bucket hat. Individual drills, then team periods, knee sleeve on the right leg, and he made it through the whole thing. First time since August 3, which I know because I've had that date in my head like a phone number for a month.

And it wasn't just him. That's the part I want to sit with. The last practice before this team gets on a sixteen hour flight, and every name you'd recognize was on the grass. Purdy, McCaffrey, Trent, Warner, all the guys who were never in question, plus the four who were. Kittle went a third straight day on an Achilles that was torn in January. Mike Evans was in uniform and actually part of it, not catching passes off to the side in a t-shirt like he was Monday. And Juszczyk's back from the broken finger he picked up early in camp, which I'd honestly stopped tracking because there was too much else to worry about.

One practice. Whole roster. Exhale.

The guys who didn't go are the guys you'd expect. Renardo Green is still working through a hamstring on the side, Jack Jones was over there with him, Jacob Cowing and Luke Gifford too, and then three rookies on the defensive line, Gracen Halton, Romello Height and James Thompson Jr. That's the list. Not one of them is a name my group chat asked about. Green's the only one I'd call a real hole and the flight is long enough that a hamstring has a week and a half to calm down before it matters.

Now the Bosa part, because I don't want to skip past it just because it went well. He said he ramped it up too fast a month ago, and you could tell from how the building handled it. They pulled everything back, let the tendinitis in that knee settle, and only put him in team drills when it was quiet. He came out of it grinning, saying if every practice felt like that one it'd be an easy job. He's confident he plays Week 1. Confident, his word, as long as nothing changes on the path he's on. I'm not going to argue with him. I've spent a summer arguing with injury reports and I'm tired.

What I keep coming back to is how narrow this was. Shanahan laid out three practices and said he wanted both guys out there and hoped it went well, and he didn't hide the reason: nobody wanted to put a man on a sixteen hour flight who wasn't going to play. Monday came in one out of two. Tuesday, Kittle again and no Bosa. And then the last possible day, the day the bags go on the bus, he's in team periods. If you'd told me in July the whole opener would come down to whether one guy could practice on a Wednesday I'd have believed you, and I still would've hated it.

I watched the clips at my desk with the sound off. My boss walked past twice. Worth it.

So they fly tonight. Late Wednesday, land Friday morning their time, a week and a half of practices on the other side of the world, and then the Rams on Thursday night the 10th here, Friday afternoon there. Kittle's the one I'll still be watching, because three practices isn't a game and the Achilles doesn't care what the calendar says. But the plane leaves with everybody on it. Everybody. Two days ago I wasn't sure I'd get to write that sentence.

The full slate is on the 2026 schedule hub, the bodies are on the roster and depth chart, Monday's head count is in the Kittle practiced, Bosa didn't column, and everything else from this summer lives on the 49ers hub. Next time you hear from me it'll be from a very strange time zone.

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