{"id":210849,"date":"2025-01-17T16:00:55","date_gmt":"2025-01-17T21:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=210849"},"modified":"2025-01-17T05:44:44","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T10:44:44","slug":"chargers-could-cut-joey-bosa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/01\/17\/chargers-could-cut-joey-bosa\/","title":{"rendered":"Chargers $135 Million Star A Cut Candidate &#8211; Panthers, Chiefs Top Landing Spots"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Los Angeles Chargers edge defender Joey Bosa is one of the best players in franchise history, but the former superstar may have played his last game with the team. A first-round pick in the 2016 <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-draft\/\" target=\"_self\">NFL Draft<\/a>, the Ohio State product immediately stood out as one of the best players on the team. Winning Defensive Rookie of the Year honors with a 10-sack inaugural season, Bosa made four Pro Bowls in his first six years while earning a massive $135 million extension.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, the injury bug bit Bosa hard, limiting him to a combined 14 games in 2022 and 2023. While he played 14 games in 2024, the veteran pass rusher didn&#8217;t look like his old self, recording just five sacks and 13 quarterback hits while on the field. Joey Bosa is still a good player, but he&#8217;s not providing the superstar production the Chargers are paying for. Los Angeles can save a staggering $25.4 million in cap space by cutting him, and it&#8217;s hard to say no to that kind of savings.<\/p>\n<p>The Chargers already have <a  href=\"https:\/\/overthecap.com\/salary-cap-space\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">plenty of cap space<\/a>, but they&#8217;ll need most of that money to rebuild this roster. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/01\/15\/stephon-gilmore-contemplating-retirement\/\" target=\"_self\">Khalil Mack is contemplating retirement<\/a>, and Los Angeles could use some of Bosa&#8217;s savings to give him a large short-term deal and bring him back. Meanwhile, the offense needs at least two more wide receivers, including a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/01\/12\/chargers-tee-higgins-texans-wild-card-loss\/\" target=\"_self\">big-money investment like Tee Higgins<\/a>. Joey Bosa might not have a future with the Chargers, but he should land on his feet if and when the team cuts him.<\/p>\n<h2>Chargers Could Cut Joey Bosa &#8211; Panthers, Chiefs Top Destinations<\/h2>\n<p>The first year of the Dave Canales Era was a massive success. While the 5-12 record won&#8217;t impress anyone, the former Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator successfully built an environment that brought out the best in former <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/12\/21\/dave-canales-bold-statement-on-bryce-young-future-starting\/\" target=\"_self\">first-overall pick Bryce Young<\/a>. Surrounded by a great offensive line and talented young playmakers, the Alabama product played like a franchise quarterback down the stretch. With the future bright on the offensive side of the ball, it&#8217;s time for the team to fix the defense.<\/p>\n<p>This unit was probably the worst in football last year, and Joey Bosa wouldn&#8217;t singlehandedly fix the entire unit. However, edge rusher is probably the biggest need, and the present-day version of Bosa would still be the best pass rusher on the team. Carolina never found a true <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.giants.com\/news\/brian-burns-trade-details-carolina-panthers-draft-picks-free-agency-2024-contract\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">replacement for Brian Burns<\/a>, and pairing Bosa with star defensive tackle Derrick Brown and fellow edge defenders D.J. Wonnum and Jadeveon Clowney could give Carolina an adequate defensive line.<\/p>\n<h3>Jumping in the Division<\/h3>\n<p>One team&#8217;s trash is another team&#8217;s treasure, and the Chiefs could use a player like Joey Bosa on their roster. While the team went 15-2 during the regular season and finished with the top seed in the NFL, they should improve their pass rush. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/10\/23\/chiefs-jones-trade-titans-hopkins-rams-kupp\/\" target=\"_self\">Defensive tackle Chris Jones<\/a> is still one of the best in the game, finishing the year with five sacks and an elite 89.7 grade. However, he can&#8217;t do it alone, and he&#8217;s not getting enough help from his edge defenders.<\/p>\n<p>Veterans George Karlaftis and Mike Danna are fine starters, but they&#8217;re nothing special. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2023\/04\/06\/felix-anudike-uzomah-nfl-draft-profile-team-fits\/\" target=\"_self\">2023 first-round pick Felix Anudike-Uzomah<\/a>, meanwhile, has yet to shed the &#8216;bust&#8217; label. Perhaps he can break out in Year 3, but the Chiefs shouldn&#8217;t bank on it. Seeing Joey Bosa on the Chiefs after so much time with the Chargers would be weird, but the fit is too good to deny. The present-day version of Bosa should start for this team and he could help power the organization to another title if he can recapture his pre-injury form.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo: Thomas Shea &#8211; USA Today Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Los Angeles Chargers will likely cut edge defender Joey Bosa, but the one-time star could find a new home in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2376,"featured_media":210850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,30,16],"tags":[7642,7811,1018,7661],"class_list":["post-210849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chargers","category-panthers","category-chiefs","tag-chargers-featured","tag-chiefs-featured","tag-joey-bosa","tag-panthers-featured"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210849"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":210912,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210849\/revisions\/210912"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}