The Chargers Are Blowing It With Joey Bosa

Joey Bosa and the San Diego Chargers continue to be at an impasse in contract negotiations and on Wednesday another bit of news went public. The Chargers submitted their “best offer” to Bosa’s representatives and it has been rejected. Now that offer is off the table and the two sides are “nowhere.” While both sides share blame in this saga, this is yet another example of how woefully San Diego’s ownership and front office have run the team.

After the Chargers’ latest offer was declined, the team issued a statement bashing Bosa and his representatives, a move I’m sure will only encourage him to sign right up:

Here’s the thing, while the deal the team offered Bosa seems reasonable if those points are actually true, these negotiations should have never gotten to this point. The Chargers selected him with the third pick in the 2016 NFL Draft after a dismal 4-12 season, hoping that he could be the kind of impact player to turn the franchise’s fortunes around. They should have had a deal done with Bosa right after the draft. Instead they delayed and delayed, hoping the Ohio State defensive end’s stance would soften. At one point San Diego didn’t even communicate with Bosa’s representatives for at least 12 days in July and August. That’s absurd. The two sides should have been talking every day trying to work something out.

Look, agents and players are always going to try and get the best deal possible, which is why it’s on owners and front offices to be the grown ups in the room. But given how the Chargers have operated over the past decade, it’s clear the team doesn’t have anyone mature enough to step up and do the right thing.

Setting aside the franchise’s ham-fisted attempts to get a stadium built on a landfill in the bustling metropolis of Carson, California, the last decade has been one major embarrassment after another. From the firing of Marty Schottenheimer (who was coming off a 14-2 season) and hiring of human marshmallow Norv Turner, to a litany of bad contracts given to average players, silly draft selections, the horrific treatment of fan favorite Eric Weddle and the complete wasting of Philip Rivers’ potentially Hall of Fame career, the Chargers are clearly one of the worst-run organizations in football right now.

Owner Dean Spanos has put his kids, John and A.G. at the head of his franchise and hired and put his full trust in general manager in Tom Telesco, which is akin to naming Jacques Clouseau the lead investigator of the Kennedy assassination. All the while Spanos has demanded San Diego pony up money for a new downtown stadium to support his Keystone cops-like organization. Now, at a crucial time for the future of his team, he’s allowed Huey, Duey and Lunkhead to mangle negotiations with a player who could have a major impact in turning its fortunes around.

So while the offer the Chargers made to Bosa seems fair on the surface, it’s hard for me to have any sympathy for them after it was turned down. They created this mess by not working overtime to get a deal done months ago and now it has come back to bite them.

Bosa has missed all of training camp and almost certainly won’t be up to speed and ready to make an impact Week 1. It never should have gotten to this point, and that’s on the Chargers.