Joey Bosa Holding Out Over Contract Dispute With Chargers

Joey Bosa has been Mr. San Diego Chargers since the team selected him with the third pick in the 2016 NFL Draft. He has been the franchise’s biggest cheerleader and has been at every team function front and center as a point man. That has abruptly changed as the 20-year-old defensive end is now officially holding out thanks to a contract dispute.

Bosa skipped last Thursday’s final OTA practice because he hadn’t yet agreed to a contract with the Chargers, and on Tuesday morning he was not at the team’s minicamp. Tuesday’s practice is mandatory for all Chargers players under contract, and Bosa has yet to sign his. His representatives advised him to hold out because of a stalemate in negotiations.

Of the top 19 picks from this year’s draft, Bosa is the only player who remains unsigned. With the NFL’s latest collective bargaining agreement implementing a rookie wage scale, negotiations with draft picks have become fairly painless. Despite that, Bosa’s camp and the Chargers have hit a few snags.

Bosa’s representatives want no offset language in the contract, which means the Chargers would pay him all of the guarantees in his four-year deal (the team will hold a fifth-year option), even if the team releases him during it. Offset language is a standard provision in NFL contracts. Basically it states that if Bosa is released and signs with another team, the Chargers wouldn’t have to pay him his full salary, only the difference between his former salary with San Diego and whatever he makes with a new team. If he didn’t sign elsewhere, the Chargers would pay the full amount.

As Michael Gehlken points out, the Chargers have included offset language in most of their major contracts over the past few years. Previous first-round picks D.J. Fluker, Jason Verrett and Melvin Gordon all accepted deals with offset language.

Bosa surely has almost nothing to do with this and it’s a clear dispute between his reps and the Chargers. Obviously some kind of compromise will likely be reached before training camp later this summer, but that could mean some serious lost time for Bosa, who needs as many reps as he can get at this point.