Los Angeles Chargers undrafted rookie spotlight: Bradford Lemmons

Furman University, a small school in Greenville, South Carolina, is not known for putting out NFL players. Los Angeles Chargers undrafted free agent Bradford Lemmons will attempt to beat those odds.

Lemmons began his playing career at wide receiver and spent the first part of his college career there before moving to the defensive side of the ball in 2017. In all, he played in 40 games at Furman and made 14 starts.

Born in South Carolina, he now makes the trek to the west coast where he will try to catch on as a defensive back, one of the Chargers’ deepest position units.

At 6-foot-3 and 192 pounds, Lemmons is a tall, lanky defender. He competed in track and field in high school and Draft Analyst shows him running a 4.56-second 40-yard dash.

Lemmons didn’t fill up the stat sheet at Furman, never recording an interception and only registering a handful of tackles during his college career. He will attempt to use his size to get better position in coverage and knock down contested passes. He has the kind of speed to keep up with most NFL wide receivers, but whether he can stay close in coverage might be another story.

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Playing defensive back does run in the family as Lemmons’ uncle is former NFL cornerback Tyrone Leggette who played for the New Orleans Saints, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and San Francisco 49ers. The former third-round pick out of Nebraska logged seven seasons in the NFL and had two interceptions.

Chance to make final roster (1-10 scale): 1

Lemmons better contact Legette for all of the advice he can get because making this team, based on his previous experience, is going to be difficult if not impossible. There are currently 10 cornerbacks on the Chargers roster and if you were going to rank them from one through 10, there’s a good chance that Lemmons is No. 10 on that list.

Lemmons will need to do what he can with what will likely be limited reps this summer and perhaps create a niche as a special teams guy for the team to give him any chance to stick around, even on the practice squad.

If things don’t work out for him with the Chargers, he could have a chance to latch on with another team or even the XFL, which kicks off next spring.