With huge new contract in hand, can Chargers' Joey Bosa win NFL Defensive Player of the Year?

The year 2020 has been one that most in the world would like to forget for obvious reasons, but it has been a huge success for Los Angeles Chargers defensive end Joey Bosa as last week he signed a five-year, $135 million extension with the team. Can he follow it up with his first NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award? Bosa is +1400 on the William Hill moneyline odds.

Perhaps William Hill should simply do a Bosa vs. the Field prop for 2020 Defensive Player of the Year as Joey's younger brother Nick is +900. Nick, the 2019 No. 2 overall pick out of Ohio State, won last season's NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Award. Joey, the 2016 No. 3 overall pick out of Ohio State, also won that as a rookie.

Joey Bosa's camp apparently made it pretty clear he was going to hold out this season without a new contract, and that tactic paid off in spades as Bosa's $102 million guaranteed is the most ever given in the NFL to a defensive player, surpassing the $100 million Cleveland recently gave Myles Garrett. Bosa was scheduled to earn $14.4 million this season, but got $78 million immediately upon signing.

Bosa is a great player but has played all 16 games in just two of his four seasons. Last season, Bosa produced 11.5 sacks and led the NFL with 24 pressures on third down. His 40 sacks through those four seasons are the second-most ever by a Charger in his first four years behind Leslie O'Neal's 42.5. Since 2017, Bosa has a pass-rush win rate of 27 percent, second in the NFL over that span to Robert Quinn, who himself got a big free-agent deal this offseason from the Bears.

No Charger has ever won Defensive Player of the Year. The team also has a Defensive Rookie of the Year candidate in former TCU linebacker Kenneth Murray, who was chosen with the No. 23 overall pick in this year's draft.

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