49ers safety Talanoa Hufanga preparing as if Nick Bosa won't play amid contract standoff

The San Francisco 49ers and star edge rusher Nick Bosa remained embroiled in a contract dispute with the Week 1 matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers just six days away.

With Bosa having been away from the 49ers since training camp opened on July 25, 49ers safety Talanoa Hufanga said the team is preparing as if he won’t be on the field when toe meets leather Sunday at 1 p.m. ET.

“For us, we just got to play with who we got,” Hufanga said Monday. “We would love to have Bosa, obviously. I think that’s a no-brainer. Best defensive player in NFL, and it shows. For us, we’ve just got to prepare as if he’s not going to be here. Obviously, that’s an upper-echelon question; that’s a front-office question. And so, for me, I don’t know if I can answer anything else on that. But once he’s here, we’d love to have him.”

49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan recently said that negotiations have gone exactly how he thought they would, seemingly unbothered by the time in which Bosa has been absent from the team. Shanahan added, however, he’d like to see Bosa “sooner than later.”

“I thought it would come probably at this time, just looking at the history of those things,” Shanahan said, via Nick Wagoner of ESPN. “And I’m really hoping it gets done. I know they’re working tirelessly at it… but hopefully we can get him in here sooner than later.”

49ers, Nick Bosa hoping to finalize new deal ‘sooner than later’

Bosa, 25, is coming off a season in which he won AP Defensive Player of the Year. He racked up a league-leading 18.5 sacks to go along with 51 tackles (41 solo) and 48 quarterback hits. Through four seasons, he’s accumulated 43.0 sacks, 156 tackles (116 solo) and 106 quarterback hits.

Bosa is entering the fifth and final year of his rookie deal which carries a $17.9 million cap hit in 2023. General manager John Lynch called communications with Bosa “healthy,” though admitting there’s work to be done.

“As this thing gets closer, sure, that becomes more present because people will talk about it more,” Lynch said on the “Murph and Mac” show, via David Bonilla of 49erswebzone.com. “What I’ll tell you is that the communication is ongoing. It’s good, it’s healthy, and we’re working to try to get something done. I don’t have any more updates other than that.”