Chargers sign Joey Bosa to five-year, $135M deal

It’s officially official. On Tuesday night, the Chargers announced their brand new deal with Joey Bosa to keep him under contract for the next six seasons. The five-year add-on will pay the defensive end $135M, including $78M guaranteed at signing and $102M in overall guarantees, as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com  tweets.

Bosa’s deal is an absolute record smasher. His full guarantees and  overall guarantees are the highest of any defensive player in NFL  history. On the whole, it’s the largest contract the Chargers have ever  given to a player in the history of their franchise. Before the Bosa  extension, no Chargers player had reached $100M.

It’s even more of a jaw-dropper when considering the current economic climate and the possibility of a sharply reduced cap in 2021. Still, as GM Tom Telesco has pointed out, the Chargers have more flexibility for next year’s books than most teams. The deal is an outlier for this offseason, but not an anomaly. Just a couple weeks ago, Browns defensive end Myles Garrett signed five-year, $125M deal with $100M in total guarantees.

Bosa’s deal has leapfrogged Garrett, Bears outside linebacker Khalil Mack and Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald in every category. Previously, Mack was the financial kingpin of the defensive end group with $23.5MM per year, followed by DeMarcus Lawrence of the Cowboys ($21M/year) and Frank Clark of the Chiefs ($20.8M/year).

In his first two pro seasons, Bosa racked up a combined 23 sacks and  111 tackles. In 2019, Bosa missed the bulk of the season with a bone  bruise, but still managed 5.5 sacks and 23 tackles in seven games. Last  year, he turned in a complete 16-game season, and he met every lofty  expectation – 11.5 sacks, 67 stops and a forced fumble en route to his  second career Pro Bowl nod.