Larry Borom made his first career start for the Chicago Bears, and the San Francisco 49ers knew it. The team made it a point to introduce Borom to the NFL with Nick Bosa. Bosa came into the game against the Bears lining up against right tackles on 10% of his snaps while going over the left side on 90%, per PFF.
However, on Sunday he spent 84% of the time on the right side with his side in the dirt over Larry Borom. He played 25 snaps in six weeks on that side but was there for 47 on Sunday to take advantage of the matchup.
Bosa got his, but it was actually when Alex Bars were in as an extra lineman. Borom allowed two pressures, but overall handled himself.
As if Bosa was not a rough introduction into the NFL it arguably somehow gets harder this week. When he heads to Pittsburgh to take on the Steelers it will be T.J. Watt’s lineup against him.
This time the Steelers do not have to move Watt around to get the matchup that they want, Watt spends all of his time lined up over the right tackle.
The Bears will obviously be giving Borom as they did with Bars against Bosa, but the reality Is that you could not draw a worse start to a career than Nick Bosa and T.J. Watt.
On one hand, he is halfway done and has handled his own. If he can survive Sunday you can argue that it is all smooth sailing from there. It does not get harder than those two, and if it does, the experience from opening his career against those two is going to be great to rely on.
There are positives and negatives, but either way, we are going to learn a lot and be able to track the growth of Larry Borom after these two games, against these two elite athletes.