Defensive end Joey Bosa remains a free agent and apparently it’s going to remain that way for the foreseeable future.
49ers defensive end Nick Bosa said May 28 that his older brother was “working on his golf game” and not thinking about football. That hasn’t changed, Nick Bosa said on the Murph & Markus Show this week.
“Joey might need to start training if that’s going to be the case,” Nick Bosa said, suggesting Joey Bosa was nine holes into his golf outing on Monday.
Nick Bosa added, “No, probably not,” when asked if news could be coming about Joey Bosa returning to the NFL.
Joey Bosa, 31, has not had a double-digit sack season since 2021. The five-time Pro Bowler has only 19 across the past four seasons, including five in 2025 for the Bills.
He was 35th on PFT’s list of top-100 free agents this offseason.
The only question left is: Is Joey Bosa retired or would he consider joining a contender late in the season or next season?
Chargers Clips
Former Chargers linebacker Billy Ray Smith Jr. died Wednesday, his family announced. He was 64.
“It is with profound sadness that we share the loss of our beloved Billy Ray Smith Jr., who passed away peacefully surrounded by family,” the family said in a statement. “Billy Ray faced his long journey with dementia caused by CTE with unmatched bravery, dignity, and strength.
“Billy Ray brought so much joy, light, and laughter to the world as a devoted father, husband, son, and loyal friend. On the NFL gridiron for a decade with the Chargers, and decades that followed in sports broadcasting, Billy Ray earned deep respect from teammates, colleagues, and fans, who he cherished in return.
“He leaves an irreplaceable void in our lives. His undeniable legacy will live forever in our hearts, and we thank our incredible community for the outpouring of love and support.”
The Chargers made Smith the fifth overall pick in 1983 out of the University of Arkansas, where he was a two-time unanimous All-American. He finished eighth in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting.
He played all 10 seasons of his NFL career with the Chargers, totaling 26.5 sacks, 15 interceptions and 13 forced fumbles in 126 games.
Smith was a member of the Chargers’ 50th Anniversary Team.
After his retirement, Smith became a sports broadcaster on TV, radio and online.
The Chargers made the release of offensive guard Ben Cleveland official on Tuesday.
They signed long snapper Peter Bowden in a corresponding move.
Bowden returns to the Chargers after spending the end of the 2025 season on the team’s practice squad.
He entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent in 2024 with Green Bay, spending training camp with the Packers. Later that season, Bowden joined the Jaguars’ practice squad.
Bowden snapped collegiately at Wisconsin, appearing in 39 career games from 2021-23. He was a finalist for the Patrick Mannelly Award in 2023, which recognizes college football’s top long snapper. That season, Bowden snapped on an operation that helped Badgers kicker Nathanial Vakos earn All-Big Ten recognition.
The Chargers opened up a spot on their 90-man roster ahead of training camp.
The NFL’s transaction report for Monday shows that they have released offensive lineman Ben Cleveland. Cleveland signed to the team’s practice squad late last season and re-signed in January.
Cleveland was 2021 third-round pick in Baltimore and he remained with the Ravens until he was released last season. His departure came after he served a three-game suspension for a violation of the league’s substance abuse policy.
Cleveland appeared in 64 regular season games and five postseason contests for the Ravens over his five seasons with the team. He started seven times during the regular season and was primarily used as a guard by Baltimore.
The Chargers made a roster move ahead of the start of their training camp.
The NFL’s transaction report for Friday shows that they placed offensive tackle Isaiah World on the non-football injury list.
World signed with the Chargers after going undrafted out of Oregon. He tore his ACL during the team’s college football playoff loss to Indiana, so it may be some time before he’s ready to get back on the field.
World played three seasons at Nevada before transferring to Oregon. He started 14 games at left tackle during his only season with the Ducks.
Chargers rookies reported to training camp this week. They will have their full squad in camp on July 28 with their first practice set for the next day.
Whenever a major institution finds itself in a pickle, there’s an important question regarding the extent to which transparency will apply to the de-pickling process.
The folks at the University of Michigan have opted for partial transparency when it comes to the aftermath of the two-year tenure of Sherrone Moore, who was abruptly fired in December 2025 for allegedly having an inappropriate relationship with a member of the staff.
Michigan commissioned a full investigation, hiring the law firm of Jenner & Block to handle it. It cost more than $12 million. (The law business remains undefeated.)
On Monday, Michigan announced that Athletic Director Warde Manuel will leave at the end of the calendar year (it was couched as voluntary). It also released not the full report but a carefully-written summary of it.
Whether Michigan, a public institution, can conceal the full report becomes a legal-research project that I’ve got neither the time nor inclination to perform. (If there’s an argument to be made in court that the entire report must be disclosed, someone will surely make it.) The summary encapsulated the various issues that arose under Moore and his predecessor, Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh, in the most positive terms possible. (The review was sparked by Moore’s alleged misconduct; Harbaugh isn’t mentioned anywhere in the summary.)
“The culture review found that the football program’s prominence and organizational structure created unique oversight challenges,” the summary explains. “As the Department’s most visible program with the largest roster, coaching staff, and support organization, football requires particularly strong oversight and accountability. The culture review concluded that existing oversight mechanisms were not sufficiently effective and recommended strengthening leadership oversight, clarifying responsibilities, enhancing reporting relationships and improving compliance processes.”
In other words, and as is surely the situation at other big-time, successful college programs, Michigan football was popular, profitable, and in turn powerful. The full university supported it. Anyone who pushed back risked becoming a pariah.
That created a situation where the football program essentially ran itself, and when it ran into trouble (e.g., the Connor Stalions sign-stealing scandal, which also isn’t mentioned in the summary) the knee-jerk reaction was to circle the wagons and to deny and/or downplay the situation.
As to Manuel, the summary provided a glass-half-full assessment that ultimately didn’t save him from being shown the door (or, officially, choosing to use it on his own): “The culture review found that Warde Manuel demonstrated important leadership strengths, particularly his commitment to student-athletes. At the same time, it identified failures to quickly and effectively act on allegations of wrongdoing by Athletic Department employees.”
To put it all as simply as possible as it relates to the NFL, Harbaugh picked the perfect time to leave Ann Arbor. He’d won a national championship, successfully fending off multiple NCAA investigations long enough to finish the job and hit the road.
And while Michigan has been cleaning up various messes in his wake (while more recently dealing with a new one created by his top assistant), nothing changes the fact that Harbaugh delivered the program’s first national title in 26 years.
Here’s the inescapable reality — most college football fans would gladly accept the embarrassing complications later for a championship now. Especially if the $12 million investigation results in a summary aimed at concealing the full extent of the embarrassment.
Marcellus Wiley, as they say, is having a moment. And not the good kind.
The former NFL defensive end and ESPN/Fox personality was arrested over the weekend for domestic battery. On Monday, his wife made very strong allegations against him in divorce paperwork and in a request for a restraining order.
Wiley has posted on social media clear, loud denials as to the alleged battery, and as to the claims made by his wife in court filings.
Wiley has yet to deny this one: TMZ reported on Wednesday that Preferred Bank sued Wiley in December 2025 for failing to satisfy a $500,000 loan.
Per TMZ, Wiley and his company, Dat Dude Entertainment, borrowed the money in May 2023, promising to pay it back after one year. The bank, per TMZ, claims it didn’t receive the money or the associated interest. Wiley allegedly received multiple extensions until December 2025, when the bank then filed suit.
As of this posting, Wiley has not addressed the TMZ report.
Wiley spent 10 years in the NFL, playing for the Chargers, Bills, Cowboys, and Jaguars.
In 2021, Trey Lance went third overall to the 49ers, and Mac Jones followed 12 picks later to the Patriots. Lance is a backup with the Chargers, his third team, and Jones is a backup with the 49ers, his third team.
It took Jones four years to end up with the team he thought he should have joined on his draft day.
“I remember like all the hype leading up to it, but yeah, I think everything happens for a reason,” Jones said on Bussin’ with the Boys, via David Bonilla of 49erswebzone.com. “Like I’m here where I’m at now, and I did think [they might draft me]. They traded up for somebody, and I knew it was one of two people, and I was one of the people. So, I guess if you’re a gambling man, it’s a 50/50 shot at the start.”
It was unclear who the 49ers wanted to draft that year as they kept their choice under wraps. Jones had no indication what San Francisco was doing until the team selected Lance after trading the 12th overall pick, first-round picks in 2022 and 2023 and a 2022 third-round pick to the Dolphins.
Jones joked that he could have saved the 49ers the draft picks if they had stood pat and selected him.
“You could have just picked me at 12,” Jones said. “I don’t know if I’m worth three first-round picks, but shit, sign me up.”
No one traded for Jones this offseason, so he will remain Brock Purdy’s backup this season in the final year of his contract.
The NFL is making a significant change to the offseason calendar for the 2027 season.
Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports that the free agent negotiating window will open on March 9 next year. That is the same date that the two-day window opened this year, but the change comes in how close it will be to the end of the Scouting Combine.
NFL teams will wrap up their examinations and interrogations of incoming prospects on March 8 in 2027, which moves the league away from having a week or so between the two events as they have in past years.
Under that setup, the Combine has always been rife with table-setting for free agency as agents and team executives are all in the same place with their minds on the same things. With that gap eliminated, there will likely be even more of that work being done in Indianapolis so that teams are ready to make moves right from the starting gun.
In the wake of Saturday’s arrest of former NFL defensive end Marcellus Wiley, his wife has pursued two separate legal avenues.
Via TMZ, Annemarie Wiley (who appeared on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills) has filed for divorce, and she has submitted a request for a restraining order that would require Wiley to remain at least 100 yards away from her.
She claims that she has been subjected to a “continuing and escalating pattern of physical violence, sexual abuse, verbal and emotional abuse, financial control and intimidation.”
While she makes the general claim that, “[b]ecause of the trauma associated with many of these events, there are gaps in my memory, as I have blocked out much of what Marcellus has done to me,” specific allegations include (per TMZ) that he punched her in the face in 2014, threw a Coke bottle at her head in 2012 when she was nine months pregnant, and allegedly raped her while she was intoxicated in 2012.
More recently, he allegedly struck her in the face with his shoes in 2025. She also contends that, in January 2026, he dragged her out of bed, berated her and hit her on the head, and “then raped me, telling me that I was his property and that I had to do what he said.” She claims he raped her again that same day, and that he raped her another time two days later.
She seeks custody of their three children and exclusive use of their home in Los Angeles.
On Monday, Marcellus Wiley issued a broad denial of “these allegations” without mentioning any specific claim.
Wiley played 10 years in the NFL for the Chargers, Bills Cowboys, and Jaguars. After retiring, he worked for ESPN and Fox.
