Joey Bosa has ended his holdout and signed his rookie contract with the San Diego Chargers.
Bosa signed a four-year contract worth $25.8 million to end one of this offseason’s most contentious sagas. The news was announced via the Chargers’ official site, and team general manager Tom Telesco expressed his delight at finally having the third-overall pick in the 2016 NFL draft signed up.
“We look forward to having Joey join us and getting him prepared as quickly as possible for the 2016 season,” he said.
Asked about the protracted holdout, Bosa played up the harsh realities of business, per NFL.com’s Marc Sessler: “Of course I’d loved to be out here with my teammates. NFL is a business and like I said I’m happy it’s over with.”
Regardless of the bad taste left by Bosa’s holdout, having him signed up is still a massive boost for the Chargers. The ex-Ohio State edge-rusher extraordinaire can be a terrific weapon on a front seven already boasting talented outside pass-rushers Melvin Ingram and Jeremiah Attaochu.
Creative defensive coordinator John Pagano will be able to design plenty of sophisticated pressures to turn this trio loose on quarterbacks in the new season.
In other notable news, the Denver Broncos named Trevor Siemian their starting quarterback for 2016. The former seventh-round pick in 2015’s draft beat out this year’s first-rounder Paxton Lynch and veteran Mark Sanchez. The “Sanchise” has now been made available for trade.
Siemian is set for a tough first outing against the Carolina Panthers on Sept. 8, in a rematch of last season’s Super Bowl. The Panthers front four is fierce, and D-coordinator Sean McDermott will likely throw some blitzes Siemian’s way.
Having Siemian under center means Denver will once again be counting on total domination from their own awesome defense. Meanwhile, the more optimistic among Broncos fans will be dreaming Siemian has a Tom Brady-like rags-to-riches career trajectory.
Speaking of Brady’s New England Patriots, they released house-sized nose tackle Terrance Knighton. It was one of the more surprising cuts in a series of surprising roster moves around the NFL.
Knighton had established a reputation as one of the league’s stingiest run defenders. He’s a formidable space-eater who should’ve fit perfectly in a two-gap scheme like the one the Pats still favor on base downs.
That a coach like Bill Belichick, who usually prizes beef in the trenches, couldn’t find time for Knigthon speaks volumes of “Pot Roast’s” decline following a dismal season with the Washington Redskins.