The Chargers will be without one of their top defensive playmakers for a significant amount of time.
Derwin James sustained a severe meniscus injury at practice on Sunday, and will miss a good chunk of time because of it.
Los Angeles will once again be in a position to fill the void of James. They were forced to do it last season after he suffered a stress fracture in his foot.
Given the fact that he’s one of the best safeties in the league, it won’t be an easy task to get the same amount of production, but the show must go on.
So how will L.A. go about it? There are a few options.
The first is starting sixth-round pick Alohi Gilman. Gilman has been working as the backup strong safety throughout camp after Roderic Teamer was cut from the team.
I wrote about Gilman earlier, stating that he could make an impact in his rookie season. This was before James’ injury, but now the door is open for him to claim a starting role.
The next reasonable option is moving Rayshawn Jenkins from free safety to strong safety, and letting 2019 second-round pick Nasir Adderley play the single-high role.
Jenkins is familiar with the strong safety position, and the coaching staff covets his versatility to be bounced around in the secondary. Prior to the injury, he was a candidate to play the dime linebacker role.
Los Angeles could get Desmond King, who’s the mystery man in the secondary, involved. They could keep Jenkins at strong safety and let King play free safety. King has been working there with the second-team.
If the Bolts aren’t confident with any of these options, they could dip into the free agency pool.
One of the top options is Earl Thomas, who was released by the Ravens last week. Thomas has some familiarity with defensive coordinator Gus Bradley, as the two were together with the Seahawks for a few seasons.
Thomas has primarily played the free safety position, but Bradley could get creative with the other members of the secondary to still have him on the field.
Other free agents that could garner the attention of the Chargers include Tony Jefferson, Reshad Jones and Eric Reid.
The Chargers will have to act quickly to fill James’ void as they are two weeks away from the season opener against the Bengals. It will be interesting to see how the team goes about it.