Tom Pelissero

USA TODAY Sports

The San Diego Chargers delivered an epic statement Wednesday on the crash of contract negotiations with No. 3 overall draft pick Joey Bosa.

They also boxed themselves in.

By saying they’ve made their best offer – and now have pulled it, announcing they’ll “restructure” the proposal (read: make it worse) while questioning Bosa’s ability to prepare for a season that’s still 18 days away – the Chargers limited themselves to three outcomes:

· Bosa comes back groveling for a deal he’s already rejected (if not worse), which is plainly what the Chargers are hoping to shame him into;

· The Chargers eventually go back on their word and improve their “best” offer, rendering impotent any threats of best/final offer in future negotiations; or

· Bosa – viewed as a sorely needed difference-maker on defense, in a make-or-break year for coach Mike McCoy, for a franchise that’s trying to get a stadium referendum passed Nov. 8 – never signs with the Chargers and re-enters the draft in 2017.

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That last option is still several steps down the road. The Chargers can sign Bosa for this season up until the Tuesday following the 10th week of the regular season (Nov. 15). Even after, the Chargers have until the day next year’s draft begins to sign Bosa for future years. (Good luck with that.)

Bosa can’t be traded, and it’s still a good bet he plays for the Chargers this season. But the team has drawn a line that essentially rules out the kind of compromise that could’ve avoided this mess to begin with, at a time when contract disputes almost never threaten a draft pick’s rookie season, because the length and total value are predetermined to a large degree.

Bosa’s side has boxed itself in, too, insisting on a better payment schedule for his $17 million bonus than past Chargers draft picks have received or no offset language. That’s a reasonable position when looking at contracts of past No. 3 picks. But each team has different principles on contract language and structure, and the Chargers can point to the players drafted on either side of Bosa this year and say they’re in line.

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The team ultimately has the leverage. (Would Bosa really wait a year to get paid? And would the contract then be better than the offer he just turned down?) The Chargers also have a history of public contract spats. In 2004, they announced they’d pulled their “final offer” to quarterback Philip Rivers, only to sign him weeks later on, coincidentally, Aug. 24.

Few included a flamethrower like the one the Chargers issued Wednesday, though.

They went to the rare length of outlining several points in their “best” offer, including the “largest payment and highest percentage of signing bonus received in the first calendar year” since the rookie slotting system kicked in with the 2011 collective bargaining agreement. (Worth noting: The Chargers hadn’t drafted higher than No. 11 in that span either, and higher picks generally get more favorable deals.)

“The offer that we extended was for Joey to contribute during all 16 games and beyond,” the Chargers’ statement read. “Joey’s ability to contribute for an entire rookie season has now been jeopardized by the valuable time he has missed with his coaches and his teammates. Since Joey will not report at this time, his ability to produce not just early in the season, but throughout the entire season, has been negatively impacted.

“As a result we will restructure our offer since Joey will be unable to contribute for the full 16 game season without the adequate time on the practice field, in the classroom, and in preseason games.”

The NFL Players Association is on alert. Union spokesman George Atallah said on SiriusXM NFL Radio on Wednesday that NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith had already been in touch with Bosa and his agent, Brian Ayrault of CAA.

Atallah referred to filing a grievance as a “last resort,” and it wouldn’t be an easy case. The Chargers could lower their offer without exiting the wide band allotted for the pick, leaving the union and Bosa’s side to argue a lack of good faith in negotiations by the team.

Even if it doesn’t come to that, it’s come to this, and there’s no longer any way for everyone to get out unscathed.

Follow Tom Pelissero on Twitter @TomPelissero.

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