Joey Bosa’s Bills contract is an interesting look for the Chargers

The Los Angeles Chargers chose to cut Joey Bosa ahead of NFL free agency and ultimately lost him to a direct AFC contender in the Buffalo Bills.

Bosa’s departure was the most obvious point of the offseason for the Chargers, given the $25 million in cap savings it created. Just as predictable was the Chargers then shifting a huge chunk of that money over to retain Khalil Mack.

Looking at Bosa’s contract with the Bills, though, is pretty interesting. On its face, the Bosa contract is a $12.61 million deal with $12 million guaranteed and incentives that could push the value to just over $15 million. The Bills tacked on four void years to spread out the signing bonus hit and keep the cap hit minimal.

Which begs the question – why didn’t the Chargers offer something similar, if not a smudge better?

Even after multiple waves of free agency, the Chargers have just north of $50 million in free cap space. The deal would’ve been easily doable, even without the void years.

Of course, there’s the matter of whether Bosa actually wanted to return. But conventional wisdom said he would’ve remained on the West Coast and played with his brother Nick Bosa on the San Francisco 49ers, too.

The Chargers very obviously want to get Tuli Tuipulotu more playing time, but it’s hard not to wonder if they should’ve paid up to bring back Bosa in the rotation while in win-now mode, too. Maybe that was just impossible from Bosa’s end, but the contract sure looks manageable.

Los Angeles Chargers linebacker Joey Bosa — Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

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