Bosa Finally Signs Deal

Alas, the longstanding national nightmare of whether San Diego Chargers defensive end Joey Bosa will sign his contract is over, as the No. 3 overall pick finally acquiesced and agreed to terms on Monday afternoon.

Now we can move onto more important things like judging Colin Kaepernick.

The Chargers won the battle with their first round pick.  He took a less than market deal with offset language, which no player selected around his position took.

Did the team actually lose the war?

Bosa will miss Thursday night’s preseason finale against the San Francisco 49ers and thus all of camp and all of the exhibition season.  Without these important game reps he is severely behind the proverbial eight-ball and his rookie season is expected to be pretty much non-productive.

“We look forward to having Joey join us and getting him prepared as quickly as possible for the 2016 season,” said General Manager Tom Telesco in a statement.

They wouldn’t have had to get him “prepared as quickly as possible” if the Chargers brass didn’t play this idiotic game of financial chicken.

Congratulations, you received your offset language and if Bosa becomes a bust then the team might be able to recoup some money if they waive him before the end of his four-year contract and another team signs him.

It’s somewhat of a self-fulfilling prophecy because the indignant Chargers have helped him be in a position to potentially bust out.

What if Bosa performs well?

This is a long way down the road, but will he want to sign a second contract in San Diego, or wherever the Chargers will be playing in 2020?  Time heals all wounds, but San Diego made this negotiation personal and they’ve upheld their reputation as the most clueless organization in the NFL when it comes to negotiating rookie deals.

Although Bosa’s new Chargers teammates expressed their desires for the rookie to get into camp, know that it was purely selfish because they know he can help them win.  In an honest moment, what do you think they would say about the way their employers handled negotiations?

What kind of example did it set for the rest of the league’s potential free agents?

The mighty billionaires scored another victory over the now millionaires.  Congratulations, you flexed your leverage muscle and broke the Bosa camp.

But at what cost?

Veterans Browner, Jones released

The Seattle Seahawks began paring down their roster and one of the cuts was veteran cornerback Brandon Browner.

The #Seahawks are cutting CB Brandon Browner, source said. The homecoming didn't work out.

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 29, 2016

Browner spent three years in Seattle being the fourth member of the “Legion of Boom” before moving to New England and then New Orleans in the past two seasons.  He lasted just a few months back in the Emerald City.

Browner will likely get scooped up by some team as there is always a need at cornerback.  With that said, don’t expect it to be before Week 1 of the season, as his entire veteran salary will be guaranteed.

The San Diego Chargers released wide receiver James Jones, who signed with the team after Stevie Johnson was lost for the season.  He lasted just four weeks in San Diego, and is looking to catch on with another team as he’s been released by the Chargers, New York Giants and Oakland Raiders in the past 16 months.

Jones did play well last season in Green Bay with Aaron Rodgers, but the team made it clear that they wanted to move on with some of the younger talent such as Davante Adams, Jeff Janis and Ty Montgomery.

Jones can no longer create separation, but he has a big body that can shield off defenders and should catch on eventually with some other team, again likely after Week 1.

Preseason Pretenders?

The Jacksonville Jaguars have been lauded as one of the most improved teams in the NFL this offseason.

The acclaim from critics was backed up by impressive offensive performances in Weeks 1 and 2 of the preseason against the New York Jets and Tampa Bay Buccaneers respectively.

With a litmus test game against the Cincinnati Bengals in front of a national television audience, the Jaguars did what they often do, they laid a major egg.

The offense looked completely out of sync, the defense couldn’t tackle, there were multiple penalties and former No. 2 overall pick Luke Joeckel was completely overwhelmed as the team is trying to salvage the final year of his contract and their poor investment.

“Well, we played pretty bad,” Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles who completed 10 of 16 passes for just 52 yards said. “I do not think we did a whole lot of things. We played bad at every position and usually that is what happens when you play bad- you do not score a lot of points.”

The Jaguars starters were outscored by the Bengals No. 1’s 14-3, and that lead balooned to 21-3 early on in the second half.

“It was, but you know what offensively we’ve had some good drives now in the preseason so I think we’ll take a lot from this,” the always optimistic Jaguars head coach Gus Bradley said. “We got punched in the mouth and we came out like we’ll score, we’ll drive. We had in the first two preseason games and it didn’t go quite as planned. And we talked about, ‘Hey this could be adversity now.’ Somewhere offense, we haven’t had as much as maybe we’ve needed so to have that in the third preseason game was good for our team to experience, especially against a good team like that. So we’ll learn from this. This experience we went through, we got great aspirations and this will only help us.”

How much do you take from preseason?

If you like the way the Jaguars looked in the first two games then you had to hate the way they looked when they played a real playoff team.  How much of it is real?

Jacksonville will be the most interesting team to watch in September as they open with the Green Bay Packers, followed by a trip to San Diego, then a home date with Baltimore before heading to London to face the Indianapolis Colts.  If they lose three out of their first four, this could become a Joe Philbin type of situation.

Will Gus Bradley be able to make it back from London as the head coach of the team?

Although the front office seems united and committed to the plan, there will be a lot of pressure for general manager David Caldwell to make a change, especially having the talent that they do on the roster and a head coach on the roster as well in Doug Marrone.  This will certainly be something to watch as we head into the next month.