Joey Bosa, the third overall pick in this year’s NFL Draft, is still the only draft pick yet to be signed, and after the Chargers issued a statement today detailing the failing contract negotiations between the two parties. It doesn’t look like he’ll be wearing Charger colors anytime soon.
Statement from the San Diego Chargers on defensive end Joey Bosa. pic.twitter.com/BayBGeN22x
— Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) August 24, 2016
It is incredibly rare to see a team publicly detail their contract negotiations with a player to this degree, but the team evidently hopes it will force Bosa back to the bargaining table as soon as possible. Of note in the offer: a large signing bonus and higher salary than almost every draft pick this year, but that apparently wasn’t enough. Since that was the team’s “best offer”, they’ve pulled it off the table.
The statement continues by saying:
“The offer that we extended was for Joey to contribute during all 16 games and beyond. Joey’s ability to contribute for an entire rookie season has now been jeopardized by the valuable time he has missed with his coaches and his teammates.”
“Since Joey will not report at this time, his ability to produce not just early in the season, but throughout the entire season, has been negatively impacted.
“As a result, we will restructure our offer since Joey will be unable to contribute for the full 16 game season without the adequate time on the practice field, in the classroom, and in preseason games.”
It is past the deadline for the Chargers to trade his rights somewhere else, so they are stuck with the headache until he either signs or the season ends. Whatever the case may be, the contract negotiations between the two parties have gone from bad to worse, and it doesn’t look like any meaningful resolution is coming.
