The NFL’s opening weekend of the 2016 preseason is officially underway and this year’s third overall draft pick is still unsigned as the ongoing saga between Joey Bosa and the San Diego Chargers has now dragged into mid-August. Both sides refusing to budge over bonus money that the San Diego ownership is required to pay Bosa under the NFL’s rookie salary scale.
The issue that is causing Bosa to holdout of training camp and now the preseason seems simple at its core. Bosa is entitled to a certain signing bonus from the Chargers, a bonus that the Chargers have to pay, but not in full until a certain deadline. Bosa wants the full signing bonus before playing a single down, the Chargers have a policy for paying at the latest possible date and here we are with a contract dispute over money that has to be paid to Bosa regardless.
While fans and Chargers players such as Antonio Gates have directed their frustrations towards Bosa for holding out, the only side that should be blamed for this embarrassing saga is the team itself for mismanaging its asset by allowing the holdout to even happen in the first place.
In fact, the San Diego Chargers deserve to be criticized for even managing to allow this holdout to happen in the first place due to the fact the rookie salary structure was partially created so teams like the Chargers could stop having contract disputes with their draft picks.
Before the rookie salary scale was in place, the notoriously frugal Chargers would constantly be in disputes with their top picks. Ladainian Tomlinson, Quentin Jammer and Shawne Merriman all famously having holdouts. A factor that played a part in Eli Manning demanding a trade when San Diego famously drafted him first overall and were forced into making a trade with the New York Giants.
After all of those mistakes, the Chargers are still willing to play hardball with their first round picks despite the fact that they now have to pay their draft selections are predetermined dollar figure and signing bonus. Yet, the Chargers have found a way to have an ugly holdout with Bosa simply out of stubbornness and an unwillingness to give in to a player who could be a potential star pass rusher by egregiously mismanaging their newest asset.
The Chargers argument of having a precedent for paying player bonuses at the end of the league year is a fair one and players like Antonio Gates feel that Bosa should just simply sign the contract and wait for his money, but seeing as Bosa wants his bonus money up front the onus is directly on the team to make it work so their rookie can get back on the field where they need him. It isn’t an overly hard concept to grasp. Bosa wants his money right now or he won’t play, the Chargers need to give Bosa the money anyways and need Bosa on the field, so therefore the solution is to just pay Bosa his full signing bonus so everyone can move on from the entire mess.
Currently, the Chargers don’t see it that way as they would rather risk upsetting a rookie who could sour on the franchise thanks to this ordeal. With a rookie salary scale in place to prevent these exact holdouts, the Chargers can only blame themselves and not Bosa for an ugly holdout that has dominated the headlines so far in San Diego. With under a month until the start of the regular season, it is time for the Chargers to stop their shortsighted war of attrition with Bosa and hand over the signing bonus that Bosa is owed to end what has been an ugly saga.
