The foot injury that kept Joey Bosa out of the Chargers' regular season opener on Sunday could end up keeping him out a few more weeks.
According to ESPN.com, Bosa isn't expected to play in the Chargers' Week 2 game against the Bills. ESPN also reported that there's a possibility he could be out even longer than that after being diagnosed with a bone bruise in his foot.
It's been a frustrating week for Bosa, who suffered the injury on September 5, just four days before the Chargers opener. Although Los Angeles expected to have him in the lineup for their Week 1 game against the Chiefs, that didn't happen. After practicing on Wednesday, Bosa ended up missing practice on Thursday and Friday before being officially ruled out by the Chargers. At the time, Los Angeles coach Anthony Lynn described Bosa as being "week-to-week."
"It's very frustrating," Lynn said after Bosa was ruled out for Week 1. "He's been waiting for a while to get back on the field, and he's doing everything he can. He just wants to be out there with his teammates. He's pretty frustrated right now."
The problem for Bosa is that coming back from a foot injury can be tricky, because you're basically aggravating the injury any time you put weight on your foot.
"Foot injuries, they take on all the body weight," Lynn said. "That can be tricky, something you don't want to rush. You want to make sure that's right before a player comes back."
Without Bosa, the Chargers defense struggled during a 38-28 loss to the Chiefs in Week 1. The Chargers had some serious trouble putting any pressure on Patrick Mahomes, who shredded L.A.'s defense for 256 yards and four touchdowns. The Chargers definitely could have used Bosa, who has made sacking the quarterback a specialty of his. Over the past two seasons, Bosa has racked up a total of 23 sacks, which is the fourth highest total in the NFL over that span.
The Chargers might be able to get by without Bosa this week -- after all, they are playing the Bills -- but the team will definitely need him going forward with games against the Rams, 49ers, and Raiders coming up.
