Los Angeles Chargers: A healthy Joey Bosa will win DPOY

Aaron Donald has won the AP Defensive Player of the Year award the last two seasons and could see a member of the Los Angeles Chargers taking his crown.

For what it is worth, Aaron Donald of the Los Angeles Rams has been the best defensive player in football the last two seasons. However, one of his biggest competitors for that honor, Joey Bosa, has been hurt and has not played enough games for the Los Angeles Chargers to be recognized.

Ever since Bosa was drafted third overall by the Los Angeles Chargers in the 2016 NFL Draft he has been great but has also missed time. Bosa has missed 13 of his 48 career games in three years, although in his sophomore year he did start all 16.

In that sophomore year, we saw just how good Bosa really is, which should have planted the seeds for Defensive Player of the Year discussions. Bosa recorded 12.5 sacks, four forced fumbles, 11 more tackles for loss and a combined 70 tackles.

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For whatever reason, Bosa was not recognized as he should have been and Donald walked away with Defensive Player of the Year honors even though Bosa arguably had a better season. Donald recorded 11 sacks, five forced fumbles, 15 more tackles for loss and a combined 41 tackles.

He may have gotten the better of Bosa with one more forced fumble and four more tackles for loss but Bosa had more sacks and nearly 30 more tackles. Granted, he benefits from playing off the end, but still, Bosa arguably deserved that award.

Perhaps it was because the Los Angeles Rams made the postseason and the Los Angeles Chargers didn’t. Which is fine, I get that narrative. And while there was no disputing Donald’s 2018 season (which included 20.5 sacks and 25 tackles for loss), we saw in 2017 that Bosa is capable of winning the award.

Bosa is still only 23 years old as well and will be turning 24 prior to the 2019 season. If you look at when Donald really started to break out, his first All-Pro season came in his second season at 24. Bosa has already gotten a head start on Donald and is entering the phase of his career where he is going to put up his best numbers.

Because of that, Donald has some serious competition in LA alone when it comes to the Defensive Player of the Year. Bosa can put together some crazy numbers as well and heck, Derwin James could even enter his name into the discussion for Defensive Player of the Year.

As long as Bosa can stay healthy and play a full 16, chances are he will be in the running for the Defensive Player of the Year at the end of the season.