Derwin James earned his third AP All-Pro nomination for his 2024 campaign. Unlike his first team nomination in 2018 or his second team nomination in 2022 (both at safety), James’ presence on the All-Pro team this time comes at slot corner.
It’s a particular noteworthy turnaround for James from the slot given his last season in Brandon Staley’s defense. 2023 was the only relatively healthy season of the Florida State product’s career in which he failed to achieve Pro Bowl or All-Pro honors.
He moved all over the place and covered responsibilities for injured secondary pieces in spots, despite Jesse Minter’s initial concern about too many responsibilities. James played at nickel, box, free safety, as well as lining up on the defensive line for pass rush.
James’ best play coming at nickel is particularly interesting when considering the Chargers’ 2023 slot situation. Towards the end of last season, he was graded a 43.4 on defense by Pro Football Focus for his effort primarily in the slot vs. the Buffalo Bills. In a five week stretch towards the end of the 2023 season, James had two of the lowest coverage grade games of his career.
By contrast, James has ended this season in Minter’s defense on a much stronger note. He has been one of PFF’s top five graded defensive Chargers’ players in several of the games over the back half. His performance against Atlanta (90.9) was in the top three highest graded individual games of his career.
Chargers DC Jesse Minter was asked about how James has been able to balance his several roles over the course of the 2024 season. This was his response:
“Derwin’s done a great job. I really believe it goes back to starting at the beginning trying to teach certain things conceptually,” Minter explained. “Teach that you could be in multiple spots in this call. Don’t memorize, ‘hey you’re the safety, this is what I gotta do’. Try to understand the concept of what we’re trying to do. You could maybe be in 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 different spots in this coverage.”
“He’s incredible. Even more of a joy to work with than I could’ve ever imagined,” Minter said. “And so just a credit to him. He comes into my office every Wednesday morning, Thursday morning in a normal week. And just go over how I think we’re gonna try to use him. But he also knows that he’s the guy that whatever position we lose a guy, he can make it right. He can go back and fix this at safety like he kinda had to I think in the Denver game. Or even earlier in the year, he can fix this at dime if we lose a guy there. He can slide in at nickel and fix this there. He’s just incredible to work with. I’m super happy that a guy that works as hard as he does, cares about his teammates as much as he does, sort of sees the fruits of that by the production he’s been able to have this year. It’s been really cool to see.”
James showed that he’s a key piece for the Chargers’ defense going forward and one of their franchise cornerstones after a rough 2023. And he’s not done yet. As one of the leaders of the defense, he and the team will go into Houston to get their potential first playoff win in six years.