Nick Bosa can sympathize with Aaron Rodgers' devastating injury

Aaron Rodgers' first season with the Jets may have lasted just a few snaps before his devastating injury on a turf that also claimed the 49ers' Nick Bosa not too long ago.

Back early in 2020, San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa wasn't quite a household name, although he was coming off a Defensive Player of the Year campaign after recording nine sacks in his rookie 2019 season.

So, it might not have been as devastating a news bit as it could have been when Bosa suffered a torn ACL in Week 2 of the Niners' 2020 campaign while visiting the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium.

Bosa's season-ending injury foreshadowed what turned into an unfair injury-plagued season for head coach Kyle Shanahan's squad, one which San Francisco led the entire league in injuries by a massive amount.

Needless to say, Bosa and plenty of other 49ers players (including some who were injured on that same field at MetLife) voiced their complaints about the playing surface, which hosted the Niners the following week when they played the New York Giants in Week 3.

Has anything changed enough to avoid serious injuries? Or would it take a more established star player to spark change?

Perhaps it'll happen now.

Jets QB Aaron Rodgers is feared to have a torn Achilles in MetLife debut

San Francisco made former Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers' life miserable for plenty of postseasons now, so perhaps that was partially a motivating factor for him to depart the conference for Gang Green within the AFC instead.

OK, there was more to it than that, but Rodgers' new home venue at MetLife was supposed to reinvigorate the twilight of his Hall of Fame Career.

Instead, Rodgers' first year with New York might have lasted a mere handful of snaps.

Early in the first quarter on Monday Night Football against the Buffalo Bills, Rodgers went down awkwardly and was subsequently ruled out of the game with a left leg injury. Further analysis, including the not-for-the-faint-of-heart slow-motion clip below from ESPN's Adam Schefter, has led to a strong possibility of a torn Achilles:

Both Schefter and NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported the injury was suspected to be an Achilles tear, which would end the quarterback's season.

Damned MetLife, right?

Perhaps that injury could have occurred the same way on natural grass, but MetLife already has a reputation. So does artificial turf, which is something Rodgers' former Packers teammate, offensive lineman David Bakhtiari, called out not long after Monday night's injury:

49ers' Nick Bosa can probably relate to Aaron Rodgers' devastating injury

So far, Bosa hasn't commented about Rodgers and/or the playing surface at MetLife Stadium.

That said, both players understand now what it's like to have almost a full season yanked out from underneath. There was plenty of hype surrounding both Bosa and Rodgers in 2020 and 2023, respectively, as Bosa was coming off that Defensive Rookie of the Year campaign that paralleled a Niners Super Bowl run, while Rodgers' long-awaited departure from Green Bay landed him in the Big Apple with a Jets team starving for excellent quarterbacking.

In one instant, it's (likely) over for the year.

While Bosa can understand the frustration, his own injury didn't cause him to miss much in the grander scale of things. Two seasons later, he secured a Defensive Player of the Year award after leading the NFL with 18.5 sacks, and that translated into a new contract extension that made him the most expensive non-quarterback in league history.

Rodgers has already claimed the title of most expensive player ever, yes. And he's been a multiyear MVP, too.

Turning 40 years old this December, though, Rodgers is looking back at the bulk of his career. Not ahead. It'll be a much more challenging recovery

That's devastating. Even if Rodgers was a San Francisco enemy for many, many years.

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