Joey Bosa takes preparation seriously. Last year when he was getting ready for the draft, he even practiced for the Wonderlic, before logging the kind of score that would make people who care about such scores nod approvingly.
“I’m not as dumb as I may sound or look,” Bosa said.
Along those lines, the Chargers defensive end has a concrete plan about his offseason, which he has taken pains to keep team officials abreast of. It was noted that he wasn’t around for the start of voluntary workouts last week, but he has since returned.
“I’ve been over-communicating with everybody for months now,” Bosa said of his plan, via Jack Wang of the Los Angeles Daily News. “It’s no secret to anybody.”
Bosa told all his coaches well in advance that he was going to continue the conditioning work offsite with his own trainer (who didn’t want to be named, in a rare lack of self-promotion in that industry). Bosa worked with the same trainer last year and emerged from a long contract standoff to win defensive rookie of the year honors, with 10.5 sacks despite missing the first four games.
“I just found a guy who really knows what he’s talking about, and my body changed in ways I could never have imagined last year,” he said. “Pain in certain parts of my body that I’ve had chronically for years and years was suddenly gone after going through this process and this program.
“After that and after the year I had last year, I saw no reason why I would ever change what I’m doing.”
Considering his production, the Chargers ought to be fine with it, and appear to be. And considering the lengths he’s gone to to explain his participation in a process that’s supposed to be voluntary, everyone else should be as well.