Countdown to Kickoff: Profile on San Diego Chargers No. 99 DE Joey Bosa

The Countdown to Kickoff series begins with a profile on San Diego Chargers rookie defensive end Joey Bosa.

There are exactly 99 days until the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers open up the 2016 NFL regular season with a Super Bowl rematch. In the meantime, we at NFL Spin Zone are going to profile a player each day as we countdown the days to kickoff. The Countdown to Kickoff series begins here with number 99 for the San Diego Chargers, rookie DE Joey Bosa.

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Heading in to the 2016 NFL Draft, the Chargers were projected to take either DB Jalen Ramsey or OT Laremy Tunsil with the third overall pick. DE DeForest Buckner and OT Ronnie Stanley were also mentioned as strong suitors for the team down the stretch, but they surprised everybody when they selected Ohio State defensive end Joey Bosa with the third overall selection.

Bosa was an extremely productive and impressive defensive player at Ohio State, but he appeared to slip down the draft boards throughout the process. Bosa is not the most talented or exciting outside pass rusher, and that caused him to slip down many boards throughout the process.

Also, Bosa’s lack of production in his final season at Ohio State was commonly pointed to as an issue for some in the draft community.

Bosa was a consensus All-American in both 2014 and 2015, but his 13.5 sacks as a sophomore in 2014 is much more impressive than his five sacks as a junior last season. However, I think Bosa’s lack of production as a junior can certainly helped to be explained in this one quick clip.

While this one clip against Illinois is certainly an extreme example, Bosa faced consistent double and triple-team attacks throughout the 2015 season. On a defense at Ohio State filled with NFL talent, opposing teams were not allowing Bosa to beat them.

Obviously it would have been nice to see him put up another double-digit sack season, but I have a hard time putting too much stock in to those numbers knowing the kind of attention that Bosa has receiving.

The Chargers did not worry about his lack of production last season, and simply sat back and took the best player available on their board. Bosa had been a target of theirs for a long time, according to the fun story of how the Chargers ended up taking Bosa as told by Ricky Henne of the team’s official website.

“Joey jumped out his freshman year,” said Chargers general manager Tom Telesco, according to Henne. “I was at a game he played against Purdue, and he jumped out in that game enough that he made you look down at your flip card to see who is number 97. And I saw he was a freshman.”

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Bosa only played ten snaps in his final game at Ohio State, getting ejected from the game for a ridiculous targeting call. However, in those ten snaps, Telesco saw enough to know that Bosa was their guy.

“He only played ten snaps, but you got a chance to see him do almost everything,” Telesco said. “He took on a double team from Ronnie Stanley and their guard, split it and made a play. He rushed the quarterback from off the edge, and they moved inside into defensive tackle and pass rushed inside. He dropped into coverage. You saw everything in ten snaps that you’d like to see before he got tossed for targeting.”

It is going to be interesting to see how the Chargers use Bosa in their 3-4 defense. His skill-set is extremely versatile, and he will be able to shine in a variety of roles. It appears that they are going to try to play him as both a pass-rushing outside linebacker and a five-technique defensive end up front.

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No matter how the Chargers decide to use Bosa, he is going to be an incredibly strong and stable part of their defense for many years to come.