Los Angeles Chargers News & Rumors

The Chargers and first-round pick Joey Bosa haven’t had any contact since July 28th, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. Bosa stands as the only unsigned rookie in this year’s class and few expected his contract wrangling with the Bolts to go on for this long. 

As Schefter notes, Chargers greats Philip Rivers, LaDainian Tomlinson, and Shawne Merriman also had prolonged contract negotiations with the team before ultimately signing their rookie deals. Of course, that was back when rookie contract holdouts were commonplace. Under the current CBA, rookie holdouts are much less frequent and even the trickiest ones seem to wrap up by the middle of the summer. Unfortunately, there is no end in sight for this stare-down between the Chargers and the Ohio State product.

Technically, the Chargers have until tomorrow to trade Bosa’s rights but one source with knowledge of the situation tells Mike Florio of PFT that it’s highly unlikely that any team retained enough rookie pool space to accommodate his contract.

Meanwhile, Bosa’s mother took to Facebook over the weekend with some interesting comments. “It bums me out for him so much,” she wrote. “Wish we pulled an Eli Manning on draft day.” Manning, of course, forced his way out of San Diego after being selected with the top pick in the 2004 draft.

It’s important to keep Bosa’s family in mind, Alex Marvez of The Sporting News tweets, since the defensive end comes from a wealthy household and doesn’t have any pressure to immediately collect on an NFL contract. In theory, Bosa could survive a year-long holdout in order to re-enter the draft pool next year. Of course, after a year away from football, it’s unlikely that he would go No. 3 or higher in the 2017 draft. Bosa will be ineligible to play this season if he doesn’t sign by the Tuesday after Week 10.

In order for Bosa to agree to offset language, agent Todd France reportedly wants the Chargers to pay the 21-year-old the entirety of his signing bonus (approximately $17MM) in 2016. San Diego, meanwhile, would rather wait until next March to dole out a “significant portion” of the bonus. At last check, the Chargers want to give Bosa roughly 61 percent of his signing bonus during this calendar year, which is the same payout schedule the Cowboys agreed to with fourth overall selection Ezekiel Elliott, who was Bosa’s teammate at Ohio State and went one pick after him.

Photo courtesy of PFR on Instagram.

There doesn’t appear to be an end in sight to the contract standoff between the Chargers and first-round defensive end Joey Bosa, writes Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, who adds that the third overall pick will be ineligible to play this season if he doesn’t sign by the Tuesday after Week 10. Fortunately for both parties, that’s a long way off. But in the highly unlikely event the Chargers already feel their rift with Bosa is irreparable, they have until Aug. 9 to trade the ex-Ohio State star’s rights. An unsigned Bosa would otherwise be under the Bolts’ control until the start of the 2017 draft, and he unsurprisingly wouldn’t be permitted to talk with any other teams beforehand or attend next February’s scouting combine.

As of Monday, Bosa and the Chargers, who are at loggerheads over signing bonus distribution and offset language, hadn’t conversed since July 28. Bosa’s camp, led by agent Todd France, reportedly wants the Chargers to pay the 21-year-old the entirety of his signing bonus (approximately $17MM) in 2016. San Diego, meanwhile, would rather wait until next March to dole out a “significant portion” of the bonus. At last check, the Chargers want to give Bosa roughly 61 percent of his signing bonus during this calendar year, which is the same payout schedule the Cowboys agreed to with fourth overall selection Ezekiel Elliott, who was Bosa’s teammate at Ohio State and went one pick after him.

Further, in order for Bosa to agree to offset language in the fourth year of his deal, his reps wants to see the majority of his bonus paid up front. If a player with offset language in his contract is released midway through the pact, the original team is only on the hook for the difference in salary between the two deals. Without offset language, the player can effectively collect two paychecks. Naturally, there are many agents who are disinclined to forfeit that potential earning power.

The NFL’s current collective bargaining agreement has made negotiating rookie contracts much simpler than it was before, which had led to far less acrimony between teams and new draft picks. Bosa’s situation is a throwback, then, and his holdout is now the longest the league has seen since the introduction of the rookie wage scale in 2011.

Photo courtesy of Pro Football Rumors’ Instagram account.

The Chargers have yet to sign their first-round pick and, from the sound of it, the two sides aren’t any closer to an accord than they were last week. Joey Bosa‘s team hasn’t spoken with the Chargers since Thursday, a source tells Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.

[RELATED: Impact Rookies — San Diego Chargers]

Bosa’s reps reportedly want the entirety of his ~$17MM signing bonus to be paid in 2016. San Diego, meanwhile, wants to wait until next March before paying out a “significant portion” of the bonus. The two sides are also hung up on offset language. In short, in order for Bosa to agree to offset language in the fourth year of the deal, his team wants to see the majority of his bonus paid up front. At last check, the Bolts want to give Bosa roughly 61% of his signing bonus during this calendar year, which is the same payout schedule the Cowboys agreed to with No. 4 overall pick Ezekiel Elliott.

Bosa stands as the only unsigned first-round pick after Joshua Garnett reached a deal with the 49ers and Darron Lee inked his contract with the Jets.

Photo courtesy of Pro Football Rumors on Instagram.