San Diego Chargers provide another lesson in damaging a delicate situation further

Over the past few years of covering the NFL, I’ve seen just how gracious and passionate the San Diego Chargers fan base is online. Imagine how much better their team would be perceived if the organization itself mirrored its fan base’s behavior.

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Whether it’s their “Will they or won’t they move?” saga, the way they handled LaDainian Tomlinson‘s final year in the league, their strange and veiled negotiations with franchise quarterback Philip Rivers, or their despicable treatment of franchise icon Eric Weddle, the Chargers haven’t been the most gregarious franchise towards their players.

This has not changed, because the Chargers have been mired in another heated battle at the bargaining table with defensive end Joey Bosa.

As it happens in the NFL, many fans take the side of management. I can’t blame them either, because fans care about their team’s performance, and a player taking up more salary cap space can eventually hurt the team’s standing.

And most writers, as usual, are favoring the player’s side.

Veteran NFL reporter Jim Trotter, who wrote a piece urging us not to blame Bosa, passed along this:

"“The Chargers are demanding offset language, which allows them to recoup monies owed to Bosa if he were released and signed by another team, and partial deferment of the signing bonus into next year. The Bosa camp is agreeable to one or the other, but not both.”"

Many of you have heard about offset language before, but in case you are not familiar with the term, it’s basically something teams put in a contract to prevent a player from “double-dipping” if they bust and are released. If there is offset language in the contract and the Chargers release Bosa in the fourth year of his contract, they are not on the hook for whatever guaranteed money they owe him if he signs somewhere else. Without offset language, Bosa would be free to earn whatever guaranteed money would be left from his contract with the Chargers, as well as the salary provided to him by his new team.

How about this “partial deferment” business?

SB Nation’s Jeanna Thomas has a fabulous definition for us:

"“The other issue, signing bonus deferment, is very simple. Bosa wants his signing bonus now. The team would prefer to spread it out over time. Bosa’s camp has repeatedly expressed a willingness to compromise and accept either the offset language or the signing bonus deferral, but the Chargers appear unwilling to budge.”"

This is what the Chargers and Bosa are arguing about? Got it.

Today, the Chargers released a statement about why there’s such a stall in negotiations, and if you ever want to see what vomit on a screen looks like, take a gander at what San Diego concocted.

Here’s what the Chargers said in their release:

"An initial signing bonus payment that is larger than any player in the League has received in the last two drafts."

"More money in this calendar year than every player in this year’s draft except one (QB Carson Wentz)."

"The largest payment and the highest percentage of signing bonus received in the first calendar year of any Chargers’ first-round selection since the inception of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement (2011)."

I’ve seen a lot of nonsense in my time covering the league, but you’d have to be a special kind of sheep to nod your head and say, “Yeah, that makes sense.”

As Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio would say, it’s time to throw out the stew.

Since 2011, the Chargers never had a draft pick as high as Joey Bosa, so to say that his signing bonus% is higher than all the other’s is misleading. It’s also insulting, because they must think the fan base is comprised of lemmings. Remember, these releases are for the fan base’s ears in order to quell any possible outrage, because they matter more than the media, who rarely ever praise releases (they either criticize or ignore them).

As for the “largest payment” part…yeah, that should be apparent. If he is picked higher than the others and was drafted in a year where more cap space is available, then he should be paid more.

By the way, the Chargers highest draft pick since 2011 was D.J. Fluker, who was the 11th overall pick in his draft.

The other problem that I have with the Chargers statement is the lack of transparency. In the interest of fairness, I truly commend them on focusing on the parts of the contract that Bosa wanted, such as a high amount of his signing bonus given early in his contract.

However, they just don’t provide us enough details in the statement, because what if they gave him a whole bunch of guaranteed money early in his deal but low-balled him the rest of the way? It is possible that Bosa is greedy in all of this and is simply strong-arming the Chargers, but maybe San Diego is stubborn and doesn’t want to abandon their usual negotiating strategy (which may not work for higher picks) without ripping off the player.

The Chargers keep bringing up precedent, but the snippets they provide us are incomplete. It’s time for Bolts From The Blue’s Jamie Hoyle to shed some light on what comparable prospects have received in the bonus and offset language (the Chargers completely ignored the latter) departments:

"Fact: Since the slotting system went into effect in 2012 (five drafts), every third overall pick has signed a contract in which either the offset was removed or their signing bonus was paid in full by the end of their rookie season, as Bosa is requesting.Fact: 16 of the 20 top five picks from 2012-2015 either received their bonus by the end of their rookie season or had the offset language removed from their deal.Fact: Three of the top five picks, and five of the top seven picks to have signed this year, either have no offset language or will receive their bonus before the end of the 2016 season.Fact: Both Jared Goff and Jalen Ramsey signed deals which guaranteed them their signing bonus before the end of the 2016 season AND removed the offset language."

It is also important to note the specific rise in rookie contracts from 2015 to 2016. Comparing the two No. 2 overall picks, who are both quarterbacks, these past two drafts seems appropriate.

Per OverTheCap.com, Marcus Mariota‘s deal with the Tennessee Titans was for $24.213 million in guarantees over four years with about $3.9 million of his signing bonus prorated per year. Jared Goff’s contract with the Los Angeles Rams involves $27.937 million over four years (as with Mariota, all of it is guaranteed) and a $4.6 million signing bonus prorated.

I encourage you to click on both links and see how both contracts differ, noting the subtleties.

Therein lies the issue that I have with the Chargers statement. Calling out a third overall pick, whom they reportedly loved, in a public statement is not a nice way to smooth things over, especially if you want them on the field. The Chargers are a rising team in a competitive division, and they should want to get Bosa on the field as quickly as possible; I don’t see how insulting him will encourage him to sign a deal quicker, because it doesn’t look like they are gaining any real leverage here.

Look, they could be right about all of this. It could be that Bosa is being greedy and trying to walk away with as much money as possible. This would make him a bizarre exception to the norm, given that every other rookie contract spat since the new CBA has been resolved prior to the start of the regular season– let alone in the absence of this sort of fanfare.

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It honestly seems like a circus, made worse by the Chargers only giving specific details that shroud what are delicate talks behind-the-scenes. They gave us a glimpse of their story, and it just doesn’t seem complete enough. In this way, what they are doing is misleading, and intentionally manipulating the public to influence the negotiations is unfair and reflects poorly on the organization.