Joey Bosa is having an old fashioned rookie contract holdout

It wasn't too long ago that at this time of year, only a handful of draft picks around the league were under contract.

It was a dumb tradition. Picks and teams would wait and wait and wait and wait, hoping someone else would set the market first. Agents were worried about setting the market too low, so teams usually waited until July before a flurry of draft pick signings. We'd wonder right up until the first practice if a team's first-round pick would sign in time to be on the field. Sometimes they wouldn't. Oakland Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell didn't sign until Sept. 12, a few days following the regular-season opener, after being drafted first overall in 2007. The good old days, I suppose.

The latest collective-bargaining agreement and its slotted system for draft picks ruined all of that, or so we thought. Some like to think San Diego Chargers defensive end Joey Bosa is a throwback-type player, and heck, maybe he is based on his contract holdout.

Yes, we have an honest-to-goodness rookie contract holdout. It feels good, like seeing an old episode of that corny sitcom you liked back when. Bosa, the third pick of this year's draft, isn't participating in this week's minicamp because, unlike most draft picks, he hasn't signed yet.

“We’re disappointed he’s not here,” Chargers general manager Tom Telesco said. “This is a big part of the learning process for all players, not just rookies. But there is part of a business to this too, and we understand that. It’s part of being a professional athlete." Bosa is the only draft pick of the top 19 who hasn't signed. This isn't supposed to happen anymore (and rarely does), so what's the holdup?

Michael Gehlken of the San Diego Union-Tribune reported that it's mostly over offset language. Bosa's side wants no offset language in the deal — basically, they want the Chargers to pay all of Bosa's salary, even if he's cut in his first four years and signs with another team — and the Chargers have included offset language in every major deal the past few years, including with their first-round draft picks. So there's a standoff. It seems like the two sides could figure this out and get Bosa into minicamp, considering almost every other pick seems to be able to figure it out (last year, Tennessee Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota didn't sign until just before training camp based on an offset language dispute, so it's not unheard of). But this is part of the business side of the game. Consider it a callback to a simpler time in the NFL, when rookie holdouts were just part of the summer.