Chargers release five-time Pro Bowler Joey Bosa
LOS ANGELES — The Chargers released outside linebacker Joey Bosa on Wednesday night, cutting ties with their longest-tenured player and one of the best in franchise history.
The move saves them $25.36 million in cap space.
Bosa, 29, was selected by the Chargers with the No. 3 pick in the 2016 draft. His 72 career sacks in the regular season rank second in franchise history behind Leslie O’Neal (105.5).
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Bosa was named NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2016, posting 10.5 sacks and 17 tackles for loss. He quickly emerged as one of the league’s best edge rushers, making four Pro Bowls in his first six seasons. He set an NFL record with 19 sacks in his first 20 games.
The Chargers rewarded Bosa with a five-year, $135 million contract extension in 2020, a deal that at the time was the richest for a defensive player in NFL history. But injuries have plagued him since; he has played in just 28 games over the past three seasons.
Still, Bosa was selected to his fifth Pro Bowl in 2024, albeit as an alternate, and his 14 games played were his most since 2021. When healthy, he has remained an effective pass rusher; in the Chargers’ playoff loss to the Houston Texans in January, he had a team-high six pressures and one sack.
Bosa made it clear throughout the season that he wanted to be a Charger for life, and he took a pay cut last offseason to stay with the team. Still, he was projected to have a $36.4 million cap hit this season, which always seemed untenable for the Chargers, who with his release now have $90.6 million in cap space.
Bosa will navigate free agency for the first time in his career. Earlier in the offseason, he discussed the potential of playing with his younger brother Nick, a five-time Pro Bowl edge rusher with the San Francisco 49ers.
“It’d be cool at some point,” Bosa said then. “I always thought of myself being somebody that will play here and retire here, which I think not many people do on one team, and I think it would be a cool thing to accomplish, but you never know.”
“The Pat McAfee Show” crew reacts to news of Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby signing a three-year extension that makes him the highest paid non-quarterback in NFL history. (2:29)
HENDERSON, Nev. — Four-time Pro Bowl defensive end Maxx Crosby agreed to a three-year, $106.5 million contract extension with the Las Vegas Raiders that makes him the highest paid non-quarterback in NFL history, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Wednesday.
The extension, announced without terms by the Raiders, includes $91.5 million guaranteed, sources told ESPN, and keeps Crosby under contract through the 2029 season.
“I told him last night, ‘This is not for what you’ve done, but for what you’re about to do,'” general manager John Spytek said at a news conference. “He’s chasing championships, and so are we.”
Defensive end Maxx Crosby has agreed to a three-year, $106.5 million extension with the Las Vegas Raiders, giving him the highest average annual salary per season for a non-quarterback in NFL history.
Said Crosby: “It’s an honor to be held at that high of a standard. I take that seriously.”
His extension, which averages $35.5 million per season, surpasses those for Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson ($35 million AAV), 49ers edge rusher Nick Bosa ($34.2 million) and Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb ($34 million). It’s the first deal of a busy offseason for edge rushers across the league, with Trey Hendrickson, Myles Garrett, Aidan Hutchinson, T.J. Watt and Micah Parsons also in line for new contracts.
Crosby has developed into one of the league’s top edge rushers since the Raiders drafted him in the fourth round of the 2019 draft. Since entering the league, Crosby has totaled 59.5 sacks — tied for fifth most in the NFL — and is third in franchise history behind Greg Townsend (107.5) and Howie Long (84).
In 2024, Crosby totaled 45 tackles and 7.5 sacks in 12 games before his season was cut short because of ankle surgery.
He had two years left — with a base salary of $22.2 million in 2025 and $18.8 million in 2026 — on the four-year extension he signed in 2022, but he didn’t have any more guaranteed money. Last offseason, the Raiders gave Crosby a $6 million raise ahead of the 2024 campaign while moving $1.2 million from his 2026 salary into 2025.
The Raiders have made the playoffs only once in Crosby’s six years with the organization, but he’s hopeful things will turn around under Spytek and head coach Pete Carroll.
“I am extremely excited and motivated,” said Crosby, who added that he’s “getting close” following surgery and has been running on the treadmill. “I have been here for seven years and it has been a blessing. … A lot of people in this building have helped me. I am about to be five years sober in a week and without that, I wouldn’t be here.”
Spytek said Crosby’s deal sets the tone for a new era for the Raiders.
“We want to grow this to a place that people want to be,” Spytek said, “When Maxx — and it’s no secret it hasn’t been sunshine and roses here — makes a commitment to the Raiders and stands for everything [we] talk about, that speaks volumes. I hope it’s noticed around the league.”
Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby has 324 quarterback pressures in his career — 40 more than any other player since his 2019 rookie season.
Spytek didn’t comment at the NFL scouting combine on whether a new deal with Crosby would get done this offseason, but he made it clear that he wanted the 27-year-old defensive end to be in Las Vegas for the long term and that Crosby embodies the type of players he and Carroll want for the organization.
“This is a big commitment, and there is no one we’d rather do it with than Maxx,” Spytek said. “And what he stands for, the way he plays the game and the passion. That’s what Coach and I have talked about, and actions are louder than words.”
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| Pos., Player | Tm. | AAV |
|---|---|---|
| DE Maxx Crosby | LV | $35.5M |
| WR Justin Jefferson | MIN | $35M |
| DE Nick Bosa | SF | $34.2M |
| WR CeeDee Lamb | DAL | $34M |
| >> ESPN Research | ||
| Players | QBP |
|---|---|
| Maxx Crosby | 324 |
| Nick Bosa | 284 |
| Myles Garrett | 281 |
| >> ESPN Research | |
The Los Angeles Chargers announced Wednesday night that they have released five-time Pro Bowl pass rusher Joey Bosa.
Bosa, 29, has played his entire nine-season career with the Chargers after they selected him with the No. 3 pick in the 2016 NFL Draft out of Ohio State. He was the league’s Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2016 after tallying 10.5 sacks and made his first Pro Bowl in his second season.
He was a Pro Bowler for the fifth time in 2024 despite posting a career low in sacks (five) for a season in which he played at least six games.
Bosa was scheduled to play on the second season of a two-year, $40.36 million contract that was a restructure of a five-year, $135 million contract extension that he signed in 2020. He was due a $12.36 million roster bonus on March 12. By releasing Bosa, the Chargers save $25.36 million against the 2025 salary cap.
Injuries limited Bosa to a total of 14 games combined in the 2022 and 2023 seasons, and he hasn’t a posted double-digit sack tally since recording 10.5 in 2021. But he remains a force when healthy and could be a coveted option for a team willing to take on his health risks and seeking to upgrade its pass rush.
The release of Bosa marks the end of a Chargers era. Bosa was drafted by the Chargers when they still resided in San Diego and leaves the team with 72 career sacks, the second most in franchise history behind Leslie O’Neal (105.5).
Matthew Stafford decided to compromise and stay put with the Los Angeles Rams. Now league sources are predicting a similar outcome with the Minnesota Vikings and Sam Darnold, who may be facing a weaker set of free agency options than anticipated.
Multiple sources who spoke with Yahoo Sports following the conclusion of the NFL scouting combine — including a handful of team executives and agents with interest in the quarterback market — believe Darnold is going to lack the robust free-agent market that was anticipated for much of his 2024 breakout season. Instead, there is growing consensus that Darnold’s best option will be to work out a one- or two-year contract with the Vikings for $25 million to $30 million a season, giving the two sides an opportunity to either do a new deal next offseason or for Darnold to re-enter free agency in 2026.
“You’d think the supply and demand is on the side of the quarterbacks this offseason because there really aren’t enough good ones to go around, but the landing spots aren’t really very attractive, either,” said one prominent NFL agent with a history of doing big quarterback deals. “I just think Darnold’s market is a lot softer than people realize, and his best setup is going to be staying in Minnesota another year.”
Two general managers shared a similar opinion, pointing to Darnold’s shaky end to the season as having a chilling effect that could be remedied with another strong year in Minnesota.
With that in mind, this is how the sources shaped up Darnold’s potential destinations …
There has been some uncertainty about where Vikings 2024 first-round QB J.J. McCarthy is in his rehab process from offseason surgeries to repair his meniscus — including weight loss that occurred in the wake of that repair. However, a source said McCarthy has already improved his weight and should be available for the offseason passing program and ready to go in June’s minicamp. Despite that, the Vikings have left the door open for a potential Darnold return on an economical short-term deal that would give the franchise another year of runway to evaluate both Darnold and McCarthy. That option would only materialize if Darnold’s free agency options are weak.
One source believes Darnold could end up back in Minnesota on a fully guaranteed one-year, $25 million deal. Another believed it could be a two-year $60 million deal with some guaranteed money also in the second year, but not enough to remove the option of the Vikings either trading or cutting Darnold next offseason if the team wants to move in another direction.
While there’s still a lot of speculation injected into Darnold going back to Minnesota, what’s clear is that it is legitimately a viable option.
Two league sources believe there is a possibility that the Las Vegas Raiders could pursue a trade for Seahawks QB Geno Smith after striking out on Stafford. That would reunite Smith with Raiders head coach Pete Carroll and open up a quarterback slot in Seattle, potentially putting Darnold in play for the Seahawks.
It’s an intriguing scenario that comes out of two developments: First, the Raiders missing on Stafford and then having reportedly soft interest in Darnold; and second, NFL teams now operating with the knowledge that Darnold wasn’t tagged and will indeed be an unencumbered free agent. That latter point is important, because it’s possible that some teams didn’t have legitimate interest in Darnold until they knew he was actually going to hit free agency. Now that he’s a real option on the table, it could lead a team like Seattle or another unknown club to reassess its own quarterback room … and potentially make a player available for calls.
As I said in the aforementioned section, it’s been reported that the Raiders’ interest in Darnold is not as strong as has been speculated, with two league sources advancing a potential trade for Geno Smith as being on the radar.
Right now, the Steelers appear more likely to give Justin Fields a short-term quarterback deal, although Fields could go elsewhere if he sees a clear path to a starting job. But there is not any consensus that Darnold is at the top of the Steelers’ list of quarterback priorities.
This is the one intriguing team that could end up being Darnold’s landing spot, if he’s willing to live the New York football experience again.
That said, there’s a lot of noise around the Giants right now. I’ve heard they aggressively want to move to the No. 1 overall pick for Cam Ward, but I’ve also heard that Russell Wilson has emerged as a fallback option after the Giants failed to land Matthew Stafford, and that there is still interest in Darnold as well. When you consider their due diligence on Aaron Rodgers as well, it’s starting to feel like every available quarterback is having their name attached to the Giants.
The desperation to land a quarterback who can win games immediately and also energize the franchise is real. If the Giants can’t find a path to drafting Ward, this could be where Darnold gets the franchise QB deal that was expected over the course of last season.
This should be an option for Darnold, but nobody believes the Titans are willing to pay blow-out money for any of the veteran quarterback options. Instead, they’d start considering options at a low end of the QB contract spectrum, which would be in the $25-$30 million range. If that’s where the Vikings are willing to land on a short-term Darnold deal, there would have to be other reasons for Darnold to walk away from Minnesota for a far worse situation in Tennessee.
Cleveland is salary cap-strapped to the max. I don’t see how it could work, even if the Browns wanted Darnold rather than taking a rookie quarterback in the draft.
After the last go-round, I think Darnold is more likely to pitch for the New York Mets than be a Jets quarterback again.
Staying with the Vikings?
An unknown team like … the Seahawks
Thumbs down on Raiders?
Little clarity on the Steelers
Giants sound like they’re in play
The Titans
The Browns
The Jets
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49ers’ Bosa bros union has best chance after Chargers release Joey
It’s too obvious of a connection to ignore.
The Los Angeles Chargers announced on Wednesday night that they released edge rusher Joey Bosa due to salary-cap reasons.
The 49ers already have one Bosa, and have a significant need at the position both Bosas play.
Since Nick Bosa arrived on the scene with the 49ers as the No. 2 overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, the organization has been trying to find someone to complement him on the other side.
You can be sure that the 49ers will at least investigate the possibility of having Joey join Nick on their defensive line.
Because the Chargers released Joey Bosa at this time, he immediately becomes an unrestricted free agent. The five-time Pro Bowl selection can sign with any team at any time.
The 49ers have a spot at the front of the line to talk to the elder Bosa about joining forces with his brother.
Find the latest San Francisco 49ers news, highlights, analysis and more with NBC Sports Bay Area and California.
Joey and Nick are tight. And followed similar paths to the NFL.
They both starred at St. Thomas Aquinas High in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where they were varsity teammates for one season (2012) when Joey was a senior and Nick was a freshman.
Joey Bosa attended Ohio State from 2013 through 2015, and Nick followed him from 2016 through 2018.
They never played together in Ohio State, but it’s always been in the backs of their minds that they could someday play together in the NFL.
Joey Bosa’s career has been limited by injuries, leading to the Chargers’ decision to part ways with him at this stage.
This development represents the first true opportunity for the Bosa brothers to play together since high school.
It also might be their last chance.
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