Good Morning Stormcloud! Staying in the defensive secondary we now look at the Safety position which became more settled as the season came to a close. This stellar unit helped Jesse Minter to build a robust pass defense so the question is how does Minter grow from here without over committing resources. This evaluation will therefore include:

• Returning players who signed a new deal with the team
• External free agents who signed before the May 1st compensation pick exemption deadline
• Players who were added in any of the seven rounds of the 2025 NFL Draft
• Undrafted free agents (UDFA) who signed deals with the team after the draft
• Unsigned players who are listed as camp invites in media reports

Note: If a player has an asterisk after their name (*) this means that they were added during the 2024 season and have been retained

Outgoing players

• AJ Finley
• JT Woods
• Akeem Dent
• Jalyn Phillips

The new look CB room

• Incumbent (2): Derwin James, Alohi Gilman
• Returning (4): Elijah Molden*, Tony Jefferson*, Kendall Williamson, Emany Johnson
• Free Agents (0): N/A
• Draft (1): R.J. Mickens
• UDFA (1): Jaylen Jones

Returning

It’s telling that Elijah Molden was the first deal the Chargers struck with an internal free agent. He was always going to be a priority for the team due to them giving up draft capital for him however his play warranted the deal and then some in my opinion. At this point I’ll give Joe Hortiz some more praise for seeing their starting free safety in the form of a slot corner because that takes some incredible foresight and it shows he and his staff have an understanding of what makes a good defensive back at the NFL level. I’ll double down on the praise too as they brought him back on a deal that’s already a steal but will soon be even better. His 3 year $18.75 million deal has $13.5 million in guarantees puts him on par with Eric Murray and Brandon Jones and for further context his deal is worth half of what Grant Delphit and Talanoa Hufanga got paid as other free agents in the same class. Molden was always a candidate to resign at or below his market rate due to him being a Chargers fan and he showed a sense of gratitude to the team for taking a chance on him after his snap count was starting to dwindle.

Molden made an immediate impact on Jesse Minter’s defense as he hauled in an interception against the Titans in Week 2 and kept playing at that level for the majority of last season. The former Tennessee Titan hits every mark you want to see in a free safety in the modern NFL; he can read offensive play structure from a distance, he acts early and decisively, his zone coverage work is very good at all levels and he is a pretty sure tackler in space. After he was injured in Week 17 his absence was immediately noticeable despite the decent play the Bolts were getting out of the entire safety room. His presence allows Minter to play his 3 safety ‘Big Nickel’ looks which puts Derwin in a position to be in the game wrecker role that serves the whole defense better than letting him cover downfield.

In fact on a recent podcast appearance with Chris Long, the Defensive Lineman who spent 11 seasons in the NFL, Derwin said that he had been putting in a lot of work with Khalil Mack and Bud Dupree to develop his pass rush moves, saying he had been working with them every single day. A move that Long said reminded him of the type of work Malcolm Jenkins used to put in. His excitement was as infectious as it always is and I think his bullishness was telling us he’s going to have a career year in terms of blitzing. With Alohi and Elijah securing the deep parts of the field, James would be free to attack downhill more often and perhaps that could be the answer for where this team will find another gear in terms of getting pressure to the quarterback. Minter used his fire zone coverage at much lower rate than he did at Michigan so if he stepped this back up using Derwin, Junior Colson, Tuli Tuipulotu and Kyle Kennard as the flexible pieces then that can allow the chargers to bring pressure on early downs in a more sustainable manner than last season.

Tony Jefferson was one of the more under-appreciated signings of last season in terms of the national media spotlight. The veteran safety went from the Baltimore Raven’s scouting department to a contributing player on a playoff team which is an incredibly hard change to make. Tony surprised us all with his play speed and strength but it was his leadership and on-field teaching that made him so valuable across periods where all three starters were missing through injuries and a ban for Derwin James. The intention was never to see him play 20+ snaps on a regular basis and I think he will return to the quasi-coach role he was brought in to do. I think the team’s official ‘Unc’ will welcome this transition but the team can sleep well knowing that they have a contingency option waiting in the wing should the starters miss time again.

Kendall Williamson is back with the team after signing a Reserve/Future contract at the end of last season which was his second in the league after being drafted in the 7th round by the Chicago Bears. He failed to make the 2024 team after sitting on the practice squad all of his rookie season but he was picked up by the Buffalo Bills. This didn’t last long and once again found himself cut before the regular season however in October the Chargers gave him another shot signing him to the practice squad. Williamson was a first-team Academic All-American at Stanford so he’s clearly a smart player and sometimes that’s a great asset to have on your scout team. Unless he finds a completely different gear, I find it hard to see him making the team despite him playing 19 regular season snaps last year.

Emany Johnson is another mid-season addition from last season that returns on a Reserve/Future contract. Johnson was a UDFA coming out of Nevada where he was teammates with Daiyan Henley before the Chargers’ starting linebacker transferred from Reno to Wazzu. Emany spent the 2023 season at the Dallas Cowboys without seeing regular season action before he was released at the final roster cut downs the following season. The big safety is an athletic type with good speed, particularly over 20 yards, and upper quartile explosive movement skills. Despite the constant injuries to safeties during his two month spell with the team, he never got onto the field and he was actually released before the playoffs. Therefore the indication is that the team sees him as a camp body who can provide scheme knowledge which allows the team to rest the incumbent starters during preseason.

“The 6’2, 216-pound safety was a First-Team All-Mountain West selection in 2023 after posting 100 total tackles, three interceptions, four pass breakups, and 3.5 tackles for loss in 11 starts.“

BFTB on the signing of Emany Johnson

Draft

R.J. Mickens was the last of the Chargers 6th round picks last month, the former Clemson Tiger profiles as a free safety after playing over 50% of his snaps as the top perch in West Goodwin’s hybrid zone scheme. His experience is impressive having spent 3 seasons starting in a pro-style system which means his translation to Minter’s defense should be relatively smooth as he has seen and done it all. You can see this in his film too with strong communication skills, calm leadership and patience.

“The son of an 11-year NFL veteran, Mickens grew up around the game, and it shows in the way he sees the field”

Dane Brugler on Mickens

Mickens covers a lot of ground when working downhill with some eye catching displays of closing in perfect time to disrupt the play. His 4.49 speed shows up in bursts but it’s not consistent however where his athletic talent does show up is his vertical as that muscle mechanics translates to being able to stand up ball carriers in the hole which he is able to do. That said there are some clear reasons why he fell to the 6th round. The first thing that stands out is his tackling both in terms of execution and getting to the ball carrier, both are streaky and these failures seem to come at the worst times. Mickens takes poor angles when firing from a single high alignment to outside the numbers, often flying in blind and getting blocked late due to a lack of awareness. One thing to note is that when he’s coming from a two high alignment to hit a gap between the tackles, he looks much more comfortable so this will fit Minter’s scheme a lot more.

Safeties are incredibly difficult to project to the NFL and as much as you can spot physical traits that can translate such as tackling, block destruction and ball skills, there is very little consensus on how teams evaluate playing in space in a preventative role as it involves a lot of intangibles. I’ve always described analyzing safety play at the NFL level as like being able to understand fine art through the negative space, to look at what’s not there and see the artist’s reasoning for not adding more. Without understanding the exact coverage adjustments and key sequence it’s very difficult to know how the prospects coming out of college will affect the game as professionals. Therefore it is always smart to take a safety at some point in the draft especially as they’re usually contributing factors on special teams.

UDFA

Jaylen Jones, the Chargers’ lone UDFA signing at the safety position, is a strong safety out of Virginia Tech who has only played defense for two seasons since switching from wide receiver in the fall camp of 2023. His first season was a steep learning curve as he played 419 snaps despite making the change only weeks before the season opener so it was no surprise to see him struggle early on. His torrid 32.7% missed tackle rate could have forced him to give up on this new pathway but Jaylen put in the work and improved leaps and bounds entering his senior year. His tackling became a strength, he only missed 4 attempts across his entire final season as a Hokie and his growth was not limited to that area. Jones was able to turn his receiver skills into ball production too as he hauled in 3 interceptions with 6 pass break ups.

“High effort (type of player), he knows what he’s doing. He’s out there energetic, high effort. He’s going to watch a lot of film. We watch film a lot of times. So just somebody who is a student of the game who wants to get better and wants to be great,”

Virginia Tech’s Nasir Peoples on Jaylen Jones switching positions

His tape speaks the same language as the metrics as he looks like a receiver still learning the position but he has good instincts, shows patience beyond his experience and is not afraid to get physical. At times he displayed his lack of time on task including a mental error that led to an easy touchdown against Miami which resulted in a temporary benching. However the basics are there and with his athletic upside you can see the potential that the Chargers’ scouts were probably keen to see what he can do. I like his chances to grow his skills on the practice squad and as such a new player to the position there’s no telling how far he can go.

Reasons for change

To be succinct: there was no reason to change the major components of this safety group because the three starters are returning and they were already one of the best and deepest groups in the league. It’s not just Chargers fans who think this either as the trio of Derwin James, Elijah Molden and Alohi Gilman are getting the kind of national attention they deserve. The biggest factor for me is that the trio only played 9 games together so there is plenty of room for improvement in terms of their synergy.

Position Reset Evaluation

For the Chargers to only bring in two new faces is an indication that this team has a lot of faith in the five returning players. I think both additions, R.J. Mickens and Jaylen Jones, bring some applicable skills and have relevant scheme-aligned experience so they can apply pressure to the guys on the roster bubble especially if they can master special teams. Both are shorter than ideal safeties but their ability to play across multiple spots means their availability will give them access to the field should they both make the roster.

It’s hard to say that the position has improved as the changeover has been so minor but with new faces comes new opportunities for growth and that’s what Harbaugh, Minter and the secondary coaches will be looking to find. I wouldn’t rule out another couple of additions on either side of camp as eight players for three starting positions leaves them a little short for preseason rotations. Either way it happens this room looks set and strong with the natural chemistry of the starting three providing a foundation for the unit to build from.