Last week, I wrote that it seemed unlikely that Joey Bosa would face the San Francisco 49ers in this week’s preseason finale. That might be changing! The Chargers announced on Monday that Bosa has signed his rookie deal. It is a four-year deal (with a fifth-year option) worth $25.8 million, with a $17 million signing bonus. Ian Rapoport is reporting the whole deal is fully guaranteed.
Bosa was in the team’s offseason workout program, but sat out a month of training camp while negotiations started and stopped. It was getting nasty, with the Chargers issuing a press release listing out the issues they were having with Bosa. It was fairly unprecedented in the world of the rookie wage scale negotiated in the 2011 CBA.
Now that Bosa is back with the Chargers, the first question is if he will play on Thursday. I would think they will get him in there, even if it’s limited work late in the game. He just needs the snaps and time working with the defense. The second question is if he is ready for Week 1. I would imagine he has been working with the playbook, but he hasn’t been practicing. Even if he was staying in shape (I assume he was), it will be interesting to see how quickly he gets into regular season action.