The San Diego Chargers selected Ohio State Buckeye Joey Bosa with the 3rd pick of the 2016 NFL Draft. Bosa was a highly decorated Buckeye receiving National and Conference honors beginning his Freshman year. In 2013, Bosa was named a First Team Freshman All-American  as well as selected to the Freshman All-Big Ten First Team.  In 2014, his Sophomore year, he was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, Big Ten Lineman of the Year, First Team All-American and All-Big Ten, as well as a Lombardi Award Finalist. He repeated most of the honors his Junior year, falling short of claiming the Nagurski-Woodson Defensive Player of the Year for the second time.

The San Diego Chargers believed that Joey Bosa could make a real difference on and off the field. Many of the fans protested the selection of Bosa until they saw his college film. Bosa is the missing piece to the Chargers defensive line struggles which only net 32 sacks the entire season. Time will tell how good Bosa will be at the NFL level but at the moment Bosa is not at camp. Bosa is missing camp due to contact issues with the Chargers. To keep this short and sweet Bosa is looking to double dip his contact. Bosa is missing valuable practice time during this holdout. Time will tell the damage that this holdout does to his image in San Diego. Early favorite for the rookie of the year award, Bosa is going to have to play like a GOD on the field for missing so much time. It’s not like he is an NFL veteran who has played thousands of snaps instead he has yet to play his first down in the NFL.

Chargers head coach Mike McCoy isn’t happy that Bosa is missing training camp. He made the following comments during his regular press conference following the first day of training camp.

“He definitely needs to be out here as a rookie. I don’t have any update on the status. Tom made his comments the other day, it’s the same today and we will keep working at that. He needs to be here, everybody needs to be here, especially as a younger player for the installations, playing with your teammates, things like that. We are going to coach the players who are here, and the players who are here did a nice job today.” – Mike McCoy

According to Eric D Williams of ESPN Bosa is the last unsigned first round draft pick.

Bosa is the last unsigned first-round pick after the San Francisco 49ers reached agreement with their second first-round pick and No. 28 overall, former Stanford guard Josh Garnett, on Friday night. (ESPN)

We can sit back and complain all we want that Bosa has yet to sign his contract with the Chargers or we can think about the past. As I write this article I cannot help but think of one great Chargers player who was in the same footsteps as Bosa.

Back in 2005 a young rookie by the name of Shawne Merriman was held out of camp due to contract disputes. Merriman would miss exactly one week of camp before signing his contact with the Chargers.

After being picked 12th in the draft out of Maryland, Merriman had a shaky start with the Chargers when his agent held him out of
offseason workouts until he signed a contract. Despite fears of protracted negotiations, he missed only a week of training camp
before signing a deal potentially worth $15.73 million, with $9 million guaranteed. (ESPN)

Merriman would go on to win the Associated Press Defensive Rookie of the Year beating out Seattle linebacker Lofa Tatupu by 12 votes. He would lead the Chargers in sacks with 10 amongst his 54 tackles.

Only one thing currently sets Merriman and Bosa apart…. Bosa has attend one minicamp to Merriman’s zero…

 

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