Derwin James right at home with Los Angeles Chargers
By Kelvin Hunt
Former FSU All-American safety Derwin James appears to be right at home in the secondary of the Los Angeles Chargers.
We thought Derwin James ended up in a great situation despite losing a couple of million dollars by sliding to the No. 17 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.
He went to a team with a proven defensive coordinator in Gus Bradley who was responsible for the “Legion of Boom” in Seattle.
The great thing about that is James is familiar with a lot of the things Bradley wants to do because he did so many things at Florida State.
It appears it hasn’t taken long for James to make an impact on the field and impress his teammates.
Play of the day: Chargers first-round pick Derwin James picking off Philip Rivers in the endzone with a leaping interception. Super athletic play in 11-on-11 drills
— Dan Woike (@DanWoikeSports) June 13, 2018
Joey Bosa says the way Derwin James is able to cover so much ground is very impressive.
— Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) June 14, 2018
Thoughts
According to Woike, James has had more ups than downs in mini-camp although he did blow an assignment which resulted in a touchdown this week too.
It seems like the biggest question for Gus Bradley is defining what role James will play.
Will it be strong or free safety or a combination of both based on who the Chargers are going up against?
That’s probably one of the biggest reasons they took him at No. 17 aside from being the best player on the board.
James is extremely flexible. He’s fast enough to play in coverage, but physical enough to lay the boom coming downhill against the run too.
The latter is where the Chargers gave up a league worst 4.9 ypc in the run game in 2017. They were second worst with rushing yards allowed per game with 131.1 ypg.
Next: Derwin James Projected To Start 2018 Opening Game
The addition of Derwin James could be the steal of the draft as the Chargers were solid everywhere else on defense.