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Originally posted by CanadianBoltFan
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He is barely tolerable. He knows less than most here do, has never played football and is far too arrogant given his limited knowledge. His best asset is he has access to the team to ask questions. What really annoys me is "his" film breakdown - as if he knows enough to breakdown film without a LOT of help. -
not sure on that one, there is some crazy shit here.Originally posted by richpjr View Post
also, he lives it - watches the practices, etc.Comment
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LOL - well, how about replacing most with a lot of people here?Originally posted by northerner View Post
not sure on that one, there is some crazy shit here.
also, he lives it - watches the practices, etc.Comment
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Early in the offseason, Derwin James Jr. was probing. His relationship with new defensive coordinator Jesse Minter was still in its infancy, so he did not want to be overbearing. But the Los Angeles Chargers safety was curious. So James would meander into Minter’s office and, in between get-to-know-you conversations, inquire about the defensive plan.
Coach, what do you think we’re going to be running?
Coach, how do you see me playing?
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“Little questions,” as James recently called them.
Each time, Minter stood up from his desk, walked over to the door and closed it.
In these private moments, Minter started to lay the groundwork for his vision.
“Let’s re-stake the claim as you being one of the best safeties in football,” Minter told James.
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What James took away from this statement — and all those offseason conversations — was a sense of alignment. And not because Minter was placating. Quite the opposite. James felt Minter’s genuine “confidence” only because his new defensive coordinator was willing to address the hard truths from last season.
The truths James had already reckoned with during a painful but necessary self-scouting mission.
“I turn on the tape every day,” James said of his offseason. “I’m not a liar, like complacent, like, ‘Oh, I’m playing good. I’m playing good.’ No. I know that’s not the way I know I can play. That’s not the way I know I can feel. And I don’t want to feel like that.”
James’ football identity is rooted in passion and fire. The energy and violence with which he plays the sport are explosive. It lifts his teammates. It pours off the field and into the stands. It jumps out of the television screen and into your living room.
When he is at his best, of course. And last season, James was not at his best.
Before Minter opened the playbook this offseason — before any discussions about scheme, design, positions, coverages, blitzes or disguises — James had to rediscover this identity. This fire that had burned lower and lower over a 5-12 season until it was smoldering embers, and then mere ash and coals.
“Man, just play the way you know how to play,” James remembers Minter saying. “Play the way you know how to play and just have fun. I want to see that smile. I want to see you out there lighting up the room. I want to see your game.”
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“Literally it was that simple,” James said. “He knew who I am.”
Together, James and Minter faced reality — the good and the bad.
Together, they set a course toward rebirth and resurgence.
“I know we got a plan,” James said. “I just can’t wait for everybody to see it.”
The eureka moment came during a film study session not long after last season ended.
James had gone back and watched every game from 2023. When he arrived at the Chargers’ Week 17 loss at the Denver Broncos on New Year’s Eve, he saw exactly what had been missing.
For many, it was a meaningless game between two teams who missed the playoffs. For James, amid this journey inward, it was the spark he needed.
First defensive play of the game: James burst downhill from a split-safety alignment and met Broncos running back Jaleel McLaughlin in the hole.
Third play: Quarterback Jarrett Stidham threw to running back Samaje Perine over the middle on a check down on third-and-1. James was patrolling the middle of the field. He wrapped up Perine, lifted him in the air and pile-drove him into the turf, forcing the ball out.
Fourth play: James matched a slant from receiver Jerry Jeudy. As the ball arrived, James delivered a shoulder into Jeudy’s back. Incomplete.
He had five tackles in the first quarter. Late in the period, James read a deep shot from Stidham to receiver Phillip Dorsett, rotated from his half of the field and nearly picked the ball off. He added a sack in the third quarter.
As James watched the tape, a feeling of encouragement returned.
“Playing fast and not thinking as much,” James said.
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And that led to an internal conversation.
“I just remember looking back and saying, ‘Man, how do I want to play?’” James said. “I’m playing my best football when I’m having fun, not thinking, seeing the ball, seeing the check downs, going to kill them and just making plays on the ball. So I just really had to get back within myself. It wasn’t like I needed to go lift or get stronger. I’m still the same strength, still the same speed. It’s really just simplifying my mind and just saying, ‘Man, you Derwin James, bro. Get back to having fun.’”
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Overthinking was a plague for the Chargers defense for most of the past three seasons. Former head coach and defensive play caller Brandon Staley was a wizard on the whiteboard. Where he failed was turning his X’s and O’s into solutions that actually worked practically for his players on the field.
Inside the demise of Chargers' Brandon Staley: 'Too smart for his own good'
And there was no better example of this than James’ regression.
James will not point fingers. He takes ownership of his performance. He said his goal is “not to compare.”
He did admit he was “thinking a lot” in 2023. And it is hard to blame him.
James was playing six different positions in Staley’s defense. He was even wearing the green dot as the on-field signal-caller until Staley reassigned that responsibility four weeks into Year 2. Staley once called James the “heartbeat of our team” — a comment that turned into a playful joke in the locker room.
Staley had as much confidence in James as any coach has ever had in any single player. He helped James become the highest-paid safety in the league in 2022. But Staley did not address the hard truth: That he was putting too much on James.
“You playing six positions, you’re calling the defense, you’re the leader of the defense,” James said. “That’s a lot of tax on you. Alone.”
As the season progressed, James’ joy extinguished as his play deteriorated. It did not help that James was called for a league-leading four unnecessary roughness penalties in the first 10 games of the season. After his fourth flag, James was fined $43,710 for being a “repeat offender.” His brand of football is being legislated out of the game. He was earning a reputation. James became more incredulous with each passing penalty, searching for answers that he could not find. More water on what was already a withering fire.
The weight of responsibility on Derwin James’ shoulders throughout a trying 2023 season became a lot to handle. (Yannick Peterhans / USA Today)
Staley was fired on Dec. 15. The next week, with Giff Smith taking over as interim head coach and Derrick Ansley taking over as defensive play caller, James was effectively benched. He served exclusively as a sub-package player in a 24-22 loss to the Buffalo Bills. James was off the field for a decisive third-and-8 that iced the game.
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James was standing on the sideline at the first-down marker, helmet on, as receiver Stefon Diggs hauled in a conversion reception steps away.
“It was definitely different,” James said after the loss.
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The Chargers dropped eight of their final nine games. The offseason began Jan. 8.
So, too, did James’ soul-searching and self-examination.
He watched the tape. He saw his old self in that Broncos game.
He also got proactive about addressing the penalties. He needed to eradicate the apprehension that had seeped into his play — the constant worry of a yellow flag dropping to the turf after every big hit.
James said he contacted former Chargers assistant George Stewart during the offseason. Stewart has transitioned into a role at the league office as the NFL’s vice president of officiating training and development.
He asked Stewart an important question: “What can I do better?”
“He gave me some good tips on how they’re calling it and what they’re seeing,” James said.
James watched old film of some of the game’s great linebackers making tackles in the box. Ray Lewis. Luke Kuechly.
“I’m getting back to wrapping and rolling,” James said.
As James saw it, he only had one choice.
“You know how you fix what people say?” James said. “You go out there, you work your butt off, you don’t write them back, you don’t comment, you just work your tail off and you just put out good tape. And then guess what? They’re going to move to the next person that’s not playing good. So that’s how I look at it, bro. Literally, I don’t have to go back and forth. I don’t have to question who I am, bro. I know who I am. When I go home every day, I look in the mirror, I know who I am, bro. So just getting back to that.”
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Minter was introduced to local Los Angeles media on Feb. 22. It was a casual sit-down at a roundtable, and Minter dove into some of his defensive philosophies.
Over 23 minutes, Minter discussed James, his approach to using versatile players, his time at Michigan with new Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh, cornerback traits and his excitement over potentially building a defense with Joey Bosa and Khalil Mack on the edges.
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One brief comment stuck out, as Minter talked about his secondary.
“We’ll go at the rate of which those guys can operate,” he said.
It sounds like such a simple premise. Oftentimes, though, the simplest answers provide the most impactful fixes.
For the returning Chargers secondary players, the optimism for 2024 can be found in this shift.
A coach meeting the players where they are. Not the other way around.
In the case of James, this will look like a more streamlined role on a week-to-week basis.
Last season, according to TruMedia, James was the only player in the NFL to play 300 snaps as a deep field safety, 200 snaps in the slot, 100 snaps in the box and 30 snaps as a pass rusher.
He is capable of playing all these positions at a high level. But the issue lies in asking James to do all these jobs within the framework of a single game. On one snap, James was at slot corner. On the next snap, he was at deep-field safety in quarters coverage. On the next snap, he was blitzing off the edge. On the next snap, he was playing more of a linebacker role in the box.
All these roles require utilizing different body mechanics and reading different keys. Attacking a route from a deep-field safety position is virtually opposite from attacking that route from a press-man alignment in the slot.
And herein was the root of the overthinking problem for James. In 14 of 17 games last season, James played at least five snaps at deep-field safety, in the box and in the slot, according to TruMedia.
Minter is going to take advantage of James’ versatility. But instead of asking him to play six different positions in one game, each game plan will attempt to hone in on one specific aspect of James’ skill set.
“Where can he most be effective in a certain game, in a certain type of matchup?” Minter said in the spring. “He can do it all. But … you’ve got to be careful of not overloading him.”
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“Keeping it simple,” James said.
The idea is a more consolidated approach will unlock James.
“I’m back playing fast,” James said. “I’m not thinking, bro. I’m making people react off me versus me reacting off them. Last year, I’m kind of playing off them. No. I’m the aggressor. You play off me.”
The simplicity stretches to all facets of Minter’s defense — how he teaches it, the structure, the philosophy itself.
Minter wants to be multiple. He wants to play a variety of coverages. He wants to disguise. But he will not force complexity if it means slowing down his players.
“His philosophy allows us to play a wide range of coverages and schemes but in simple terms,” safety Alohi Gilman said.
Minter refers to this as the “concept teaching belief.” When installing a coverage, he teaches his players the strengths and weaknesses of that coverage.
“If the quarterback knows you’re in this coverage, this is the likely place that the ball would go based on the quarterback’s progression,” Minter said. “And so when you’re playing a particular coverage and you know where the weak spot is, then OK, let’s all conceptualize pre-snap, what would get him to throw the ball where we’re at the advantage and showing him those different looks?”
This breeds what Gilman called a “freedom within the defense to use the tools that he gives us, instead of boxing every set of tools.”
“That’s how you build a team and build the confidence within each other,” Gilman said.
That confidence became evident during training camp, as the Chargers defenders were all over the football.
“Guys are hungry,” James said.
Pass breakups and interceptions became a daily occurrence.
“A lot of times I spent just worrying about, ‘This ain’t going to be here. This ain’t going to be that,’” James said. (Now) I don’t have no worries. I do my 1/11, bro, the rest gonna take care of itself. And I literally been just telling myself that, bro. Don’t try to be Superman.
“I have teammates. I ain’t out there by myself.”
On the final day of minicamp in June, Harbaugh was asked for anything that stood out to him through the offseason program.
He said there had been “some huge seminal moments.” He started with James.
“One-and-a-half practices in, way back in April, it was clear to me, like, Derwin James Jr., OK guys, do whatever Derwin James is doing,” Harbaugh said. “The way he approaches the training environment, the way he approaches the meetings, the way he approaches the practices, what he wears, what he does, what he says, the way he goes from meeting to meeting, the way he communicates — everything he does.
“That’s how simple this is. It’s hit me. I’ve been here a day and a half on the job watching practice. ‘Coach, can I wear a sweatshirt with a hoodie?’ Uh, is Derwin? Just look at No. 3. Look at No. 3 and do everything that he is doing, and it’s going to be really good for you.”
“Every day I come in here, bro, I work as if I’m the worst player on the team,” Derwin James said. (Harry How / Getty Images)
James has that kind of impact on people — even football lifers with a half-century of playing and coaching experience.
“Every day I come in here, bro, I work as if I’m the worst player on the team,” James said. “I give it my all. I’m loud in the meetings, man. I’m trying to just do everything, and Coach, he be taking notice to it. He take notice, and he’s a very honest, transparent guy.
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“If you bulls—-ing, Coach gonna tell you. If you’re doing it right, he going to tell you. He don’t play favoritism. He don’t care about the status. He don’t care how much we make. If you’re doing it right, if your shirt’s tucked in right, (that’s what matters). If it’s loose, he’s gonna tell you about it. He don’t care. So when you have that in a leader and a coach, and everything is a standard — the standard is the standard — I can only do my part at that point. It ain’t even no option.”
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In many ways, James has been chasing his rookie All-Pro season for six years. In Year 2, a training camp foot injury forced him to miss the first 11 games of the season. In Year 3, he tore his meniscus in training camp and missed the entire year.
James has put those injuries in the past. He signed his market-setting contract.
What he craves now is proving himself worthy of that responsibility — performing and, more importantly, winning.
“Every day I come in this building,” James said, “the weight is always on my shoulder.”
On Aug. 4, the Chargers hosted a joint practice with the Los Angeles Rams.
James towered in the middle of the field in his powder blue No. 3 jersey.
On a red zone snap, the play broke down, and Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford was flushed from the pocket. Receiver Puka Nacua cut sharply to his right along the back of the end zone. James sprinted after Nacua as Stafford lofted a pass to the corner. James leapt. He tipped the pass — into the waiting arms of his teammate, cornerback Asante Samuel Jr.
“It’s unfinished business,” James said.
From the ashes rises a phoenix, lighting the field aflame again.
“I know it’s in me,” James said. “It ain’t left me, bro. It’s in me. It ain’t on me. It’s in me. I’m ready.”
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not buyin' the in the box stuff.... he's a deep safety,DT Grant, Deone, Omarr, Cross, ED Mykel, Tuimoloau, Sawyer, OG Donovan, Savaiinaea, TE Oronde, Moliki Matavao, DB JaCobeeComment
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I find this ridiculous. You are criticizing him for doing his job. He is literally a professional paid to do it.Originally posted by richpjr View Post
You think women can't have credible football opinions as professionals either because "they never played"? Football professionals can have professional football opinions regardless of their playing or coaching experience and it's still a more qualified opinion than yours or mine. You know why, because it's their profession, not ours. Yes I know he is a beat reporter. He covers football professionally and is around the NFL fulltime as part of his career.
Popper coverage is why a pay the Athletic money and support sports journalism financially.Last edited by BlazingBolt; 09-05-2024, 03:36 PM.migrated from chargerfans.net then the thenflforum.com then hereComment
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Money Smith calls Popper one of the best in the business, with a large and varied sample size.Smashmouth.
Reinvented.Comment
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You are free to find it ridiculous. I don’t. He is an annoying wannabe that doesn't know nearly as much as he pretends he does. The Athletic will be lucky to be around in 5 years and he can go try his luck at his true passion EDM.Originally posted by BlazingBolt View PostComment
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So you don't have a passion for it yourself or your making too much money doing something else to bother? Popper is considered to be very good at his job by many credible people, and you can clearly do a way better job than him. I mean just ask you.Originally posted by richpjr View Post
Are you saying you wouldn't want to be the beat reporter to your favorite team and have all that access? Go take his job since he is terrible at it and you are so much better.
If the Athletic dies it will be a horrible day for sports fans access to the Chargers..Last edited by BlazingBolt; 09-06-2024, 08:54 AM.migrated from chargerfans.net then the thenflforum.com then hereComment
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