High expectations have been placed on the Chargers heading into their 2023 campaign, and the team is hard at work honing their craft to live up to them at OTAs.
Head coach Brandon Staley faces a make-or-break season in his third year with the team and could be on the hot seat early if his defense underperforms.
But he isn’t sweating bullets just yet, despite the heat at the team’s practices this week. Instead, he talked about one crucial advantage he has in his secondary that could help keep Los Angeles on top when the regular season begins.
Star safety Derwin James, he said, will play a key role for the Chargers with his ability to play at multiple alignments in the team’s defense. When asked about the edge that James’ versatility provides him in game planning, Staley made his stance on the matter clear.
That’s one of the things that he does best, is play closer to the ball. He can play Star or Money. That gives us a lot of flexibility in how we want to play because has a lot of those hybrid characteristics of a defensive back or a linebacker. We feel like we have a good group that coach at that position, but certainly having his ability to play there is a weapon for us.
This isn’t a new development, as James has become one of the NFL’s top defenders by leveraging his positional flexibility since entering the league as a first-round pick in 2018.
James, the do-it-all defender, finished the 2022 regular season with 115 tackles, five for loss, four sacks, six passes defended, two forced fumbles and an interception in 14 games.
But Staley will lean on him more than ever in 2023 in his effort to bring the Chargers their first playoff win since his rookie season.
