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The former Baltimore Raven retired in 2023 and spent last season as a scouting intern, but has re-joined Joe Hortiz and Jesse Minter in Los Angeles.
Hortiz has made it clear and obvious he wanted to bring the winning culture that he experienced across his 26 years at in Maryland, to Los Angeles where he earned his first role as General Manager. He continues to rely on those Baltimore connections as he adds yet another former Raven to the 90 active man roster ahead of training camp which will start in about six weeks' time. It's not only a Joe Hortiz connection from his time in his scouting department that contributed to this reunion, Jesse Minter was the assistant defensive backs coach so he would have spent a great deal of time with Jefferson both on the practise field and in the film room.
There were signs Jefferson was aiming at a surprise comeback after he posted the clip below to his Twitter/X account and less than two hours later there was news that he was expected to try out with the Chargers' during their early June minicamp.
As Kyle DeDiminicantanio wrote in his article on June 3rd, when Jordan Schultz broke the news that Tony would be trying out during minicamp; "The Chargers have a very formidable starting pair at safety in Derwin James Jr. and Alohi Gilman, but the depth behind them is extremely questionable and filled by players from Tom Telesco’s regime."
The impact of this signing can be seen in two ways; the first is simply as a veteran camp body that can act as on-field coach to the younger safeties. Jefferson has had a reputation for being a stellar teammate who brought postivity and acted as a leader, so he could provide an example of how to be a professional the rookies in secondary. The other angle to take on this signing is that it both raises questions about the existing depth of JT Woods and AJ Finley, and potentially makes adding another veteran safety, through a trade or free agent signing, somewhat unlikely.
In my opinion it is more likely that Joe Hortiz wanted to add a veteran who has experienced winning, to a secondary that was very much lacking in that kind of familiarity with what it takes to consistently better your opponents. The only player with a winning record in Steve Clinkscale's position group is Kristian Fulton who had a 0.581 winning record and that pales in comparison to Tony Jefferson's 0.761 over his decade long career between Arizona, Baltimore, San Francisco and New York (Giants). Considering he is coming out of retirement it will likely be for a veteran minimum and I see this as no object to adding another safety either after the next set of post-camp cuts or before the trade deadline.
The one concern I do have is JT Woods' development, the former third round pick has had unknown health concerns that have kept him off the field so any further obstacles to his path to playing time will be unwanted by JT even if the advice Tony can pass onto him can improve him mentally. He needs the reps as much as anyone on the roster bubble and I am of the opinion he is further down on the depth chart than he should be so there is a genuine possibility he could be fighting for this place on the roster when preseason rolls around.
What do you think of this signing Stormcloud? Does it have a wider impact on the roster?
I like this signing. He's been a good DB in NFL for a while. Nothing wrong with bringing in good, veteran depth pieces on the cheap. I expect he'll make the final roster if he has anything left in the tank. I wish they could have also signed Calais Campbell, but it looks like he signed with the Dolphins.
This signing neither moves nor disappoints me.
The reality is before he retired, Jefferson was having trouble staying healthy and playing quality football. There's no guarantee he makes the roster, and if he does, it will be because he's earned it. And I'm cool with that.
Like you, I thought one downside was it could impede the development of other younger players. However, as @buck-melanoma has pointed out previously, they will see the field if they win the reps. And that type of competition has been sorely lacking at this organisation.
@alisterlloyd I was more disappointed that they didn’t go after a free agent who played last year. If he makes the team it only points out the obvious depth issue that the Chargers have behind Derwin and Alohi. I really don’t see JT Woods ever living up to his draft status.
This is a low cost, low risk signing, so no problem there, but I am fairly disappointed that Jefferson is the veteran safety they chose to sign, with so many talented safeties available right now.
He played well for his first 6 seasons, but from 2019 to present (5 seasons), he has only played 566 total defensive snaps, and he did not play at all in 2020 or 2023. His PFF grades in that span:
- 2022 (NYG)
- Overall - 62.3 (193 snaps)
- Run defense - 37.0 (22 snaps)
- Tackling - 62.6
- Pass rush - 46.8 (39 snaps)
- Coverage - 71.8 (132 snaps)
- 2021 (BAL, SF)
- Overall - 73.5 (92 snaps)
- Run defense - 45.5 (14 snaps)
- Tackling - 74.3
- Pass rush - 61.9 (9 snaps)
- Coverage - 76.1 (69 snaps)
- 2019 (BAL)
- Overall - 53.1 (281 snaps)
- Run defense - 68.9 (87 snaps)
- Tackling - 44.1
- Pass rush - 53.2 (16 snaps)
- Coverage - 48.9 (178 snaps)
He wasn't consistently good in any area over that span. He did have 3 good seasons in BAL in 2016-2018, but I don't think he is that player any more.
I hope he has a great career revival, but I'm not expecting it.
The Chargers just signed WR Praise Olatoke as part of the international pathways program. Olatoke ran track at Ohio State:
The 6-2, 205-pound receiver possesses elite speed, running the 100-meter dash at Ohio State in the Big Ten Outdoor Championships in just 10.27 seconds in 2022.
If nothing else, Olatoke will give the Chargers defense true elite speed to practice against.
This also may mean that CJ Okoye has a shot at making the roster. Very interested to see what the year of practice & time with Ben Herbert has done to CJs game.
@kevdiego I am assuming that CJ Okoye now counts as a roster spot or practice squad spot and that Praise Olatoke fills that extra slot??
@spanos-must-go That was my assumption. I think you can only have one International Pathways player.
My guess is that:
- If the Chargers see something in Olatoke, they can either elevate Okoye to the roster or one of their official PS spots
- If the Chargers think Olatoke is too much of a project (and the dude didn't play NCAA football at any level), then they can release him and keep Okoye as their International Pathways player.
I think I also read that teams can stash players on the IP program for a max of 2 years. CJ was getting all kinds of buzz at last years camp. The dude is 6'6", 315 lbs and 22 years old. If he's the freak athlete that he appeared to be in last years camp, learned how to play the position AND Ben Herbert adds more strength to his large frame, he could be a fun player to watch. Would be great for the program if a player broke out.
I believe there is a new wrinkle this season. Teams can choose the exemption path the Chargers used with Okoye last season. Or they can use a 17th practice squad spot for an international player, and that player can be elevated for up to 3 games. I think these are two different things, i.e., the roster exemption player cannot be elevated. And I'm not sure if a team can do both. Would be happy for more info on this.
If a team can do both, then both of these players could remain on the team even if they aren't good enough to make the final 53.
@tau837 Being able to keep both Okoye and Olatoke AND be able to elevate Okoye for up to 3 games would be amazing. No way Olatoke, a dude that's never played anything above "club" football (which I'm assuming is a bunch of frat guys tossing the ball around) is going to take some time to learn the game and his position.
You can teach route trees, but you can't teach sub 4.3 speed. Excited to see what they can teack Olatoke.
@kevdiego Agree with this. Less so lately but most WRs take 2-3 YEARS to get it if they ever do. A guy winging it around on the pitch is going to take at least that
@kevdiego He is a longshot at best. Being fast with no football experience (not counting his college/club experience) is a huge hole to climb out of. 1-2 years on a practice squad will provide our defensive backs with a fast guy to cover on the scout team. Not expecting much more.
@spanos-must-go This is a really good point and something that's easy to overlook. Sometimes, you just need these guys to be solid sparring-partners in practice that can force you to work on defending against certain threats, like a guy with elite speed
As I said above:
If nothing else, Olatoke will give the Chargers defense true elite speed to practice against.
So, completely agree with you.
To me I don't think it's a good signing. Because of a few other guys that not only played last year but I think are better than him. Also they don't have the injury bug that he's got/ had. The guys I'm thinking about are either CB'S or a S. Seeings how Minter's wanting to have the whole secondary to basically be flexible in the secondary. I said that because of the 1st guy I'm thinking that we should sign, Simmons. If not him I'd like to see a couple of other guys get signed. Gilmore and/ or Howard. True Gilmore is going to be 34 this yr, or already is, I'm not sure. But when Diggs went down last yr he stepped up and took over without the Cowgirls not skipping a beat. I don't know that much about Howard except I do know that he's better than at least JT
I understand the frustration about not signing Simmons, I feel the same way. But if we look at the signing in a vacuum, because signing Jefferson shouldn't prohibit us from signing Simmons as our depth at safety is so weak, I think it's a wise move to bring someone like Jefferson in who really understands Minter's system and can help everyone get up to speed.
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