Say goodbye to the "no harm, no foul" phase of the contractual standoff between Team Dean Spanos and Team Joey Bosa.
If an advanced rookie end like Bosa misses a week or two of Chargers training camp, or maybe even the initial three weeks, there's still time to get ready for the important third exhibition and also the season opener.
Now, even if a contract were reached this week, the former Ohio State end is almost certain to sit out Sunday's exhibition in Minnesota.
He would have time to get into football shape by the season opener, Sept. 11 at Kansas City.
However, the third exhibition, against a rugged Vikings team, represents ideal preparation. Starters on both teams will play at least a half. A loud crowd could make communications more difficult.
Chargers end Corey Liuget said working with starters, both in practice and games, was essential to his becoming proficient. Though the end position isn't especially complex, Liuget said it takes weeks, if not months, to learn John Pagano's defense and how to work in concert with teammates.
Like Bosa now, Liuget was 21 years old and coming out of the Big Ten when he joined the Chargers.
Due to the 2011 NFL lockout, he never practiced with the team in the spring of his rookie year. When training camp began, he waited a few days for his contract to get done.
Liuget said that not until late November did he get fully up to speed with the job's mental tasks.
Getting into football shape took him 13 days or more, he said.
Liuget suggested that Bosa may need less time, because Bosa, he said, is more advanced than Liuget was coming out of Illinois.
Darius Philon will start at Bosa's spot at Minnesota. Expect him to start against the Chiefs, too.
The Chargers can win at Kansas City with Philon, 22. He may be more explosive than Bosa, and he benefits from knowing the defense and having veteran nose tackle Brandon Mebane next to him.
Still, the contractual impasse is meting out a football toll on the margins, to not only Bosa but the Chargers.
Should Philon go down with an injury, the Chargers would lack two of their three most talented ends. Bosa, if and when he joins the team, will have missed out on intensive padded practices and at least two exhibitions. The learning curve would be a test, even for a prospect so highly regarded that he sat atop the Chargers' draft board from September through late April, when Tom Telesco made him the third overall pick and first non-quarterback chosen.
On some level, of course, football is still football.
There's something to be said for fresh batteries, too.
End/linebacker Dwight Freeney, during his time with the Chargers, said the rejuvenating effects of down time, both for his body and mind, had contributed to his career longevity. Because so many former NFL players and coaches work in the football media, it's only natural for them to extol the virtues of training camp and preparations. Freeney's point may get under-represented among all the odes to practice time.
Yet when a rookie misses this much prep work, it's hard to see any first-year upside. Might Bosa have fresher legs and greater resolve deep in the season? Perhaps.
While it's true that Bosa, had contract talks panned out, could have gone down with injury in recent weeks _ two Chargers players who'd made every practice nonetheless suffered season-ending injuries in Friday's exhibition _ it's universally believed in the NFL that the injury risk is greater when a player misses as much preparation time as Bosa has.
An NFC team said the majority of its injuries struck players who'd not spent the entire football year, which includes spring workouts, performing under the supervision of the club's strength and conditioning staff. Bosa has been away from Chargers Park since June 9.
In prolonged negotiations, it often takes both sides to feel pain before a deal gets done. Both sides are there now, at least in a football sense.
Don't take that as a prediction that a settlement is near.
