Joey Bosa Becomes Highest Paid Defensive Player In NFL

Joey Bosa of the Los Angeles Chargers has had his hard work paid off, as he received a big new contract from the franchise.

NFL players have been making bank during this offseason. First, we saw Patrick Mahomes become the highest-paid player in NFL history with a reported 10-year 503 million dollar extension.

Now the Los Angeles Chargers have reached deep into their pocketbooks and have made Joey Bosa the highest-paid defensive player in the entire NFL. While the numbers do not come close to the number that the Chiefs gave Mahomes, this contract makes Bosa the man with the biggest contract on the defensive side of the ball in all of the NFL.

The contract is being reported as a 5-year 135 million dollar extension. It includes $78 million in guaranteed money. Only a couple of weeks before the Cleveland Browns made Myles Garrett the highest-paid defensive player with a contract extension of 5 years $125 million, however, in Garrett’s deal $100 million was guaranteed.

There were mixed reactions from the fans on Twitter. They were upset that the Chargers gave this enormous deal to Bosa before giving star receiver Keenan Allen a contract extension. With the Chargers using their first-round pick in the 2020 NFL draft to sign Justin Herbert to seemingly be the franchise quarterback, it seems essential for the team to get his contract squared away as well before a potential holdout.

It was reported that the Chargers’ hand was forced in this deal as if they were not to give Bosa an extension of his contract, he would have more than likely held out of training camp and possibly even into the beginning of the season. With him being such a crucial part of the defense and the Chargers as a whole, they deemed it a necessity to get him his money as soon as they could and before the market for him swells even higher than it already had.

Just 24 hours before news of the contract broke, Chargers general manager Tom Telesco was asked about Bosa’s contract in which he declined to comment on it and said that he hopes Bosa will join the team and report at the start of training camp.

Bosa is the first player in all of Charger’s history to sign a contract of 100 million. With the Chargers opening their pocketbooks to Bosa, it will be very interesting to see if they will do the same for Keenan Allen later in the offseason.

However, with this signing, the Chargers have locked up one of if not the best edge rusher in the league for the next five years. Bosa was drafted to the Chargers with the third overall pick of the 2016 NFL draft and since he has stepped on the field he has made an immediate impact.

In his rookie season, he totaled 10.5 sacks, 29 solo tackles, 12 assists tackles, 17 tackles for loss, and 21 quarterback hits. In this season, he was also named the Defensive Rookie of the Year.

He has career totals of 1 pass defended, 5 forced fumbles, 2 fumble recoveries, 40 sacks, 148 solo tackles, 53 assisted tackles, 53 tackles for loss, and 82 quarterback hits.

It is safe to say that with Bosa at the helm, the Chargers will be one of the top defenses in the league for at least the next five seasons and conspiracies have been floating around that the Bosa brothers really want to play together. With Joey on a long term extension, that means that once Nick’s rookie contract is up the Chargers may be in contention of having both Bosa brothers starting on opposite ends of the line and giving the 29 other quarterbacks in the league nightmares.