LOL. I don't know if the line is quite clearly drawn at #10, as you say, but the reason why the first so many picks of the first round have leverage, is because they are so in demand, and considered most likely players to impact a team.
But, still, I must ask, since the current agreement started in 2011, 60 players were drafted in the first round. And only one player has been asked to make these concessions. So why should Bosa accept the inferior contract?
Why should he be given less consideration than draft picks #4-#10 this year? Why should he accept less than the 42 players drafted after #3 since 2011?
I still haven't heard a justification of why he should accept it.
What the Chargers are trying to do violates the spirit and the letter of NFL's rookie contract agreement.
We don’t know if only one player has been asked. We know one has OBJECTED enough to risk his career. Everything I’m reading says MOST (not all) teams drafting in the top 10 don’t put both clauses in THOSE contracts. But both clauses do appear in most of the rest of the drafts.
It’s NOT an inferior contract. He gets the same amount of money one way or the other. It’s really just ego strokes.
He should accept it because he’s a damned moron for not. Signing the contract he gets $17 million over the next 4 years, with a possible fifth year at $8 million. Not signing the contract he gets NOTHING. He gets to show up to the draft next year, where he won’t get picked number 3, he won’t get picked in the first round, there’s a really good chance he won’t get picked at all.
The Chargers are violating NEITHER the spirit NOR the letter. These are STANDARD contract clauses that have BOTH been in MOST of the rookie contracts under the new CBA including ALL the Chargers contracts. The only thing they’re not doing is they’re not providing the ego stroke to tell this player he’s special and only give him one of the standard structure clauses. Now they are dumb for letting it turn into this big a pissing contest. But so is Bosa. And in this regard Bosa is dumber, because he’s the guy pissing away $17 to $25 million bucks because the Chargers don’t feel like stroking him.
Here’s some fact that relate to your idea that the 4th round pick doesn’t get asked to do this:
http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/08/26/nfl-joey-bosa-san-diego-chargers-showdown-a-toast-to-stubborness
“Rams and Jaguars—clubs that have been habitually near the top of the draft order of late—are the only teams left sacrificing offset language; that half the NFL’s teams insist on offsets and deferrals; and that teams average 30% deferral past the current calendar year on this kind of bonus money, while they’re asking Bosa to defer only 15%.
“This bleep-storm blossomed after Ezekiel Elliott, Bosa’s former Ohio State teammate, was selected fourth overall by the Cowboys. One spot behind Bosa, Dallas got Elliott on a deal that included offset language and deferred 39% of the bonus payment to 2017. By comparison, the last three fourth-overall picks (Lane Johnson, Sammy Watkins and Amari Cooper) all got their money by October of their draft years.”
So the reality is not only did the 4th rounder get asked to do this, he deferred much more money. Bosa’s being stupid. He should sign the damn thing.