LA Chargers: Five bold player predictions for the 2020 season

Joey Bosa will record 15 sacks.

Joey Bosa has been dominant in his four-year career so far. Each year he has become increasingly more problematic for opposing offensive lines and quarterbacks. Last year, Bosa really excelled at getting into the backfield, making tackles, and increasing his quarterback pressures.

One stat that makes some hesitate on putting Bosa in the top three to five defensive ends in the league is sacks. Bosa put up 11.5 sacks last year, which was good for ninth in the league. Sacks are a huge measuring stick when it comes to defensive ends for most in the league, and Bosa probably needs a few more per year to be in the ranks of the truly elite in the eyes of analysts.

Bosa’s sack totals are pretty likely to increase next year. Linval Joseph will help in drawing some of the pressure off of Bosa and Melvin Ingram on the ends, as he’ll bring much more to the middle of the line than Brandon Mebane did. Something else that should help sack totals is Ingram hopefully playing all 16 games. Both are better when they’re both on the field.

15 sacks seem like a very reasonable number for an elite edge defender to hit, especially with more pressure up the middle. That’s also assuming only Joseph plugs up the middle better. Bosa could be aided by Jerry Tillery or Justin Jones developing further as well.

The Chargers’ defense is currently *knocks on wood* healthy. That’s something that hasn’t always been consistent. If Bosa stays healthy, he adds three of four sacks with a juiced defense.