Pickin’ Bolts: Bolts Pick Bosa; Day 2 Preview

“…With the 3^rd pick in the 2016 NFL Draft, the San Diego Chargers select, Joey Bosa…”

Surprise!

For weeks, most people suspected the Chargers were doing one of 5 things:

1. Drafting Florida St. CB/S Jalen Ramsey
2. Drafting Ole Miss LT Laremy Tunsil
3. Drafting Notre Dame LT Ronnie Stanley
4. Drafting UCLA LB/S Myles Jack (though after the injury concerns escalated this option dropped off)
5. Or trading back…

None of us heard anything about Joey Bosa until Kevin Acee talked about him. But Acee’s prediction, as much as I enjoy reading his work and listening to him, seemed so far out of left field it didn’t resonate with most Chargers media experts.

So who is Bosa? Bosa is a unique player in terms of bloodlines. His dad, John Bosa, a D-lineman, was the 16^th overall selection of the Miami Dolphins in 1987. The next year, again with the 16^th pick, the Dolphins took another DL, Eric Kumerow. John Bosa eventually married Kumerow’s sister. So Bosa has first-round NFL DL bloodlines on both sides of his family tree. They stayed in South Florida and young Joey went on to star at the Ft. Lauderdale powerhouse, St. Thomas Aquinas.

The former Dolphin D-linemen partnered together to open a gym. So Bosa literally grew up in a gym. He’s a weight-lifting freak (look him up on YouTube and you can find old videos of him as a high schooler lifting insane amounts of weight). He probably has the best hands of any DL in the draft. He’ll punch the OL back then run through the hole and attack the QB. He’s not a speed merchant; he’s not going to race around the edge the way Von Miller does or even Jeremiah Attaochu. But he has enough speed and is an accomplished run stopper every bit as much as he is pass rusher.

So where will he play? Everywhere. Sure the Chargers line up in a base 3-4. And in that base scheme Bosa could line up as a 3-4 DE or 3-4 OLB. Then in passing downs, Chargers routinely rotate into a 4-2-5 (as much as 50-60-70% of their snaps). In that scheme Bosa would put his hand on the ground as a 4-3 DE. Additionally, the Chargers can rotate into a 3-2-6 or a 2-4-5 (like the Patriots often do) and he can play as a pass-rushing OLB…consider the following: it’s a passing down, and Chargers’ D-Coordinator John Pagano wants to dial up something exotic…so he brings in a 2-4-5 blitz package and they line up with Darius Philon and Corey Liuget over the Guards with their hands on the ground while Jeremiah Attaochu and Kyle Emanuel split wide standing up and Melvin Ingram and Joey Bosa are standing up over the A-gaps (either side of the Center). That’s not something easy to block. Who’s coming and who’s backing into coverage?

Bosa is a great pick. Charger fans will be very excited with what he provides for the team.

Day 2

So what happens now?

The next picks are:

32. Cleveland Browns
33. Tennessee Titans
34. Dallas Cowboys
35. San Diego Chargers

The concensus best player available is UCLA LB/S Myles Jack. But with the uncertainity surrounding his knee Jack could continue to slide. Could Cleveland trade back again? Sure. But they still need a QB. Will they go after Cook? Maybe. Both they and Tennessee have tons of picks, might one of them use one on Jack? Absolutely. Tennessee was also linked to LT Tunsil so Indiana’s OT, Jason Spriggs makes a lot of sense.

The Cowboys will almost certainly take a DE (Kevin Dodd?). The Chargers, I think, could draft another Buckeye. Which one? Well, I’m not certain. They were reportedly very high on my favorite WR, Michael Thomas and they really could use a Safety so Von Bell is also likely. Alternatively, they may want to draft the highest rated TE, Arkansas’ Hunter Henry. And their OL need is well documented, specifically Center, so Notre Dame’s Nick Martin is a possibility as well. I’d really be surprised if it was someone other than the players I just listed… But then we began Thursday evening with a surprise so who knows.

I’ll continue live-blogging during the 2^nd and 3^rd rounds as well as shadow-drafting.

Thanks for reading and please, if you’re not already doing so, follow me on Twitter: @PickinBolts

Peter Friberg

Believer, husband, father, friend, football fan, car nut…