The Joey Bosa Contract Saga has taken another interesting turn. Before he has even taken a snap for the San Diego Chargers, Bosa is already sounding like a disgruntled member of the team harboring some negative emotions towards the franchise.
The latest buzz coming out of Chargers camp is that Bosa feels “disrespected” by the contract negotiations with the team. Bosa is “pissed off”, “offended” and feels that the negotiations have left a lasting, damaging impression on him.
Bosa has been holding out in hopes of finalizing a contract and the NFL’s current collective bargaining agreement is intended to help limit contract stalemates between rookies and their new teams, but no resolution seems to be in sight.
But Bosa isn’t the only one to blame as the Chargers are no strangers to tense negotiations with rookies. Back in 2001 Ladanian Tomlinson held out 30 days of camp while negotiating his contract with the team. In 2002, Quentin Jammer held out 50 days. In 2004 Phillip Rivers missed 25 days and in 2005 Shawne Merriman missed 7.
So, the Chargers have been down this rough road many times before.
The disagreement between Bosa and San Diego seems to be how the contract is structured. San Diego is demanding offset language allowing the team to recoup monies owed to Bosa in the event he is released and signed to another team. San Diego is also looking for partial deferment of the signing bonus for next year.
Bosa’s camp is rumored to be in favor of one of the above scenarios, but not both, and thus the stalemate continues.
It seems that the team is being a bit “over the top” with their demands and it would be in their best interest to get a deal, a fair deal, with Bosa finalized. From there they need to repair bridges that apparently seem to be already burned and hope that Bosa will be there beyond his rookie contract.
At this time, it seems Bosa is already eyeing a San Diego departure.