Good Morning Stormcloud! We’re now moving onto the defensive side of the ball which under Jesse Minter’s watch has turned into an exciting group of players. There was less turnover here but there is still plenty to discuss! 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

• Asante Samuel Jr
• Kristian Fulton
• Matt Hankins
• Zamari Walton
• Chris Wilcox
• Thomas Harper
• Robert Kennedy

The new look CB room

• Incumbent (4): Tarheeb Still, Cam Hart, Deane Leonard, Ja’Sir Taylor
• Returning (0): N/A
• Free Agents (2): Donte Jackson, Benjamin St-Juste
• Draft (1): Trikweze Bridges
• UDFA (5): Myles Purchase, Nikko Reed, Jordan Oladokun, Eric Rogers

Returning

The Chargers did not bring back a single outgoing corner which is interesting for a few reasons. The first is that it’s clear the Chargers like the young core of this unit, with two of the three starters going into their second year in the league. The four incumbent players are a stable enough foundation to build from but it’s still rare to see a team choose to let go of the entirety of their reserves. Teams put a lot of their time and resources into developing these players to a point where they can be contributors so to forego that in favor of pursuing new players is noteworthy. This is likely due to the fact that, due to injuries, every single player on the outgoing list was able to be tested in regular season action. Joe Hortiz and his front office have shown they will make pragmatic changes instead of sitting on their hands waiting for development that may never arrive and this is another example of that mentality.

Free Agents

Donte Jackson was, surprisingly, the only defensive addition that accounted for more than 1.5% of the cap. I think we all recognized that the defense didn’t need as much change as the other side of the ball but this type of signing being the marquee recruit was unexpected at least to me. The Bolts offered Jackson a 2 year $13 million deal with $7 million guaranteed which means he’s the highest paid corner on the team by some margin. Donte was drafted by the Carolina Panthers in the second round of the 2018 draft after impressing with his blazing 4.32 speed at the combine. The former LSU Tiger earned a mid level three year contract at the end of his rookie deal however before he could see that deal out, he was traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers in exchange for Diontae Johnson and a late round pick swap.

Jackson hasn’t grown into the player either the Panthers or Steelers expected him to be. His biggest issues are in tackling, he has an ugly 17.5% career missed tackle rate with no signs of this improving. However he counters this weakness with an impressive ability to take the ball away; Donte has 52 pass break ups and 19 career interceptions, including 5 last year. His profile as a ball-hawking shorter outside corner with a tackling issue, may sound familiar as it aligns with Asante Samuel Jr’s skill set but Jackson provides some significant upgrades. He has more experience, availability and by all accounts he is a joyful person to have in the locker room. The same cannot be said for the player Jackson is replacing. His experience and attitude is going to have a positive impact in such a young cornerback group but I think the primary reasons the Chargers sought after him can be found in the coverage types he excels at.

As the ever reliant Cody Alexander has shown in the graphic above there are two coverage types in which Donte Jackson will offer surplus value. The first was obviously going to be man coverage which was what he was drafted at 55th overall for, his speed and stickiness allows him to play tight against the league’s best burners which is and always will be a coveted trait. If you combined the skills of the standout sophomore pair of Tarheeb Still and Cam Hart you would find one skill missing from their amalgamation. Neither player has the kind of speed that can match up with the type of elite burners that this team will face this season and beyond. The Chiefs are building a track team with all four of their primary receivers being able to run sub 4.5 but a good deal of the Chargers’ 2025 opponents have speedsters of their own. Here are the receivers that are in the top 20% for speed (4.42 or quicker in the 40) that the Jesse Minter’s secondary will face this season.

That is 20 receivers that can take the top off the secondary with 7 of them found in the AFC West alone, all of which they will face twice this season. This for me is the main reason Donte Jackson was offered a deal beyond what he was expected to earn because with his proven long speed he will be able to get into press man and trail all of these field stretchers. This acquisition could therefore allow Minter to play more man coverage when the game is on the line. That is something he has been trying to do since the 2024 Week 4 game where Xavier Worthy dusted Kristian Fulton for a 54 yard touchdown which proved to be the winning margin in yet another tight game.

Side note: I remain confused why the Chiefs’ social media admin decided to post a clip of their $20 million free agent acquisition being burnt for a big score before he has even played a game for them

However you can’t pay a corner $13 million to only be on the field on man coverage downs and there is another coverage type where Jackson can provide value which just so happens to be Jesse Minter’s bread and butter; Quarters. During his last season as a Carolina Panther he held opposing quarterbacks to a rating of 39.6 in this coverage and last year Minter played it at a high rate. The techniques used in Quarters translate well to Minter’s Cover 6, together these coverages made up 35.8% of his usage last year. Now it is important to note that Jackson didn’t fair so well last season after his trade however the Steelers run the lowest volume of Quarters in the league so it is not a surprise that he didn’t fit what they were looking for.

Benjamin St-Juste caught my eye in senior bowl practices back in 2021 however he was over drafted by the Washington Commanders and over the past four seasons since then his play has been very inconsistent with mixed results across multiple schemes. He was drafted into a Jack Del Rio led defense that ran an aggressive Quarters scheme but when Dan Quinn took over as head coach last season, St-Juste was asked to transition into a very different role in his static Cover 3 system. You don’t need to venture very far into Commanders’ Twitter to see how bad he was regarded during his lone season playing under Quinn. It was clear that all of his weaknesses were exposed by the scheme change but this was made worse by the limited nature of his usage as he was stuck in a boundary alignment that didn’t suit his skills. Benjamin’s best work has been around the apex, in 2023 he played played in a more fluid role with 43% of his snaps coming between the slot, box or rushing off the edge. It was within this flexible role that St-Juste had a career year with 67 tackles, 17 pass break ups and his only career interception. However despite this production he still had issues in coverage so it will be a tough ask for Steve Clinkscale to turn him into a contributing player but in terms of his athletic gifts there are tools to work with.

Joe Hortiz has once again pursued cross-positional flexibility by adding BSJ and I think that between him and the 7th round rookie Trikweze Bridges, the team has addressed something the team was lacking at times; physicality and length within those flexible roles. Too often players who can switch between roles are technically sound but lacking in size whereas both of these acquisitions have targeted players who can do both even if they aren’t well rounded technically.

Draft

Trikweze Bridges was a unique corner who has had a long college career across two premiere NCAA teams. He started out at Oregon before transferring to Florida for an extra season of eligibility thanks to COVID which extended his college career into a sixth season. In fact he was in school for so long he was actually a team mate of Justin Herbert’s during his days in Eugene. Bridges was a highly recruited prospect coming out of high school after setting Alabama state records with 13 pick-sixes and 36 interceptions but he failed to turn that into consistent success playing for the Ducks as his play time actually dropped towards the end of his time there. He was starting alongside Christian Gonzalez in 2022 but saw himself replaced by a combination of the late Khyree Jackson, who was drafted by Minnesota Vikings in 2024, and Nikko Reed who funnily enough joins the Bolts as a UDFA.

The first thing you notice about Bridges is his size. He is a taller corner standing just short of 6′ 3″ but then you see his 33 1/4″ arms and his ridiculous 81 1/8” (6ft 9in) wingspan which makes his stature all the more imposing. He’s not just big either as he is very quick especially over 20 yards where he tested in the 98th percentile. This kind of physical upside is what good front offices’ target late on Day 3. Hortiz saw those athletic abilities, his intelligence and his special teams experience (over 600 snaps) and decided he couldn’t risk him being made a UDFA that was open to sign with 31 other teams.

When we’re looking at corners in the draft I do think it starts with the ability to play man but it’s also having some sense. He is a very versatile piece in the secondary, he has started games at both corner and safety. He’s a really good open field tackler.

Jesse Minter on why they drafted Trikweze Bridges

The biggest puzzle with Bridges has been where to play him. He was recruited as a safety however Oregon quickly moved him to corner but he didn’t look comfortable with that change. His press man skills lacked refinement with false steps and slow reaction footwork plus he struggled with reading hips when playing tight. So when he transferred to Florida for one final attempt to boost his stock to a draftable level, he became a versatile chess piece that the Gators used all over the field. Trikweze played 54% of his snaps at outside corner, 21% at split safety and the other 35% in the apex. This suited him much better and his impact on the field finally became evident to scouts as he racked up 69 tackles, 18 run stops, 4 pressures and 2 interceptions.

It seems that his kind of versatility, speed and size, that he will be Ryan Fickens’ favorite new special teams demon but in terms of Minter’s defense he will be deployed all across the field whilst he develops his technical skills to overturn his sporadic play. I think he’d do well to shadow Derwin James because in terms of athletic gifts Trikweze could emulate the Chargers’ star safety’s impact in terms of being a matchup answer all across the defensive backfield.

UDFA

“He is light-footed with balanced movement skills and recovery speed. His pattern recognition has shown steady improvements, although you’d like to see him better anticipate break points to be more disruptive. Overall, Reed lacks ideal size and explosiveness, but he plays fluid and natural in reverse and is quick to support the run. He’s a candidate for a nickel role.”

From Dane Brugler’s report on Nikko Reed via The Beast (The Athletic)

Nikko Reed joined Oregon as part of the wave of 2023 recruits that caused Trikweze Bridges to lose his starting role. He transferred into Eugene from Bolder where he spent two seasons at Colorado before being one of the many players to leave before Deoin Sanders’ sweeping changes took hold. Reed has always been undersized, he was 155 lbs coming out of high school but he was still a 3-star recruit and that profile has stayed true to date as he is a smaller player standing at 5′ 9″ and 183 lbs yet his ability to play above his stature remains. He was one of the more consistent defenders on the number one ranked team in the nation with impressive coverage skills that look to translate to the slot going forwards even though he has only played in that role on 23.5% of his snaps during his two years at Oregon. Reed is probably too small to play on special teams with limited college experience, so his path to making the 53-man roster will rely on creating some production during the upcoming pre-season games.

Myles Purchase is another short corner standing at 5′ 9″ but unlike Nikko he is a thicker built player weighing 203 lbs. This weight isn’t for show either as he put up an impressive 17 reps on the bench. That strength extends to his physical style of play where he use firms hands and confident footwork to fight to win the leverage battle when out in coverage. I like the way he takes on blocks against tight formations to effectively be an extra linebacker off of the weak side edge. However there are obvious shortcomings to his game such as his lack of short area quickness and he is a poor tackler, he missed 28.6% in his senior season at Iowa State. He is another candidate to move into the slot however whilst he offers some skills that make him stand out, his areas of weakness will quickly show him up as below the standard of the rest of this group unless he has drastically improved by the time camp starts in July.

Jordan Oladokun is an outside corner who has become a PFF darling thanks to his impressive numbers over his last two seasons at Bowling Green. His coverage skills are what separates him, in 2024 he had a PFF coverage grade 85.2 after only allowing 26 catches on 61 targets for 219 yards. He managed to get five interceptions and nine pass break ups too so his ball production is there even if most of his picks were gifted to him. i mean Jahdae Barron got his the same way and the Broncos took him in the first round! The issue with Oladokun is that he is a bad athlete with some eyebrow raising numbers such as a 5th percentile broad jump.

Eric Rogers isn’t far behind Oladokun either, his time in the 40 yard dash was puzzling as his release was rapid (91st percentile) but he somehow finished over the dreaded 4.60 mark which normally makes corners undraftable although there are notable exceptions such as Kamari Lassiter who shone against the Chargers in the Wildcard round of last year’s playoffs. The Chargers showed an early interest in the Rutgers’ man who had a couple of decent seasons in New York after transferring from Northern Illinois. His best asset is his length where his 32 inch arms (80th percentile) are added to his 6′ 2″ frame to close off ball angles that quarterbacks struggled to break through. He will be in the contention for a backup boundary role and if he’s anywhere close to how he sees himself, he will be competing to the final roster cut downs.

“I think I am one of the best cover corners in this class. I have the ability to eliminate the opposition’s go-to receiver. I play with a lot of confidence because I trust my coaching. It allowed me to make plays on the ball.”

Eric Rogers speaking to The Draft Network about his ability to disrupt the catch point

Reasons for change

There was a comment from Jesse Minter during his recent appearance on the Chargers Weekly podcast where the Bolts’ defensive coordinator was talking about playing to your players’ abilities and he said:

“Against the quarterbacks that we play against it doesn’t matter what the coverage is you can’t play the same coverage over and over again without them eventually figuring out the holes, the weak spots. So whether you’re spinning zones or whether you’re spinning man, to me it’s what you have, it’s what your players are good at, it’s what they’re best at. Maybe in a situation you can sprinkle something in that you haven’t done as much because you can catch them by surprise.”

As much success as Minter’s two high zone coverage scheme had there was were clear examples when he wanted to play more man coverage but he didn’t have the personnel to do so. That has taken a shift this off-season with the additions the front office has brought on board players who may not have majored in man coverage but have definitely have the skills to do so. This tracks with the players the team have let go too. This secondary is not going to be satisfied with being a decent zone unit, they want to be a great defense that can answer whatever problem they are faced with in the cold winter games of the playoffs where sometimes you need to dig in and play man on man.

Cam Hart will be the entrenched as the primary outside corner but where Tarheeb Still, the other unquestioned starter, will play will be the most fascinating part of the off-season to me. I have always admired his slot skills but when you have four interceptions as a rookie those skills are too precious to take away from the boundary so I think that’s where he will find a home. That said everything about this cornerback room tells me the lineups will be matchup dependent. Week 1 I think it will be Hart and Jackson outside with Still in the slot but in Week 8 against the Vikings I see that as more of a game where Tarheeb will play on the outside and Bridges could see time in the slot to deal with T.J. Hockenson.

By reading the tea leaves presented by the Chargers’ moves so far I think it’s safe to say that we will be seeing a lot less of Ja’Sir Taylor with an eye towards being in a position to address the run game from the slot on top of finding improvements to keeping tight ends quieter. Jesse Minter clearly wanted to be more from his apex players in light personnel last season. His affinity for two high shells requires both apexes to be occupied by players who can fit the run as well as being physically capable of covering both tight ends and slot receivers. This was a struggle at times with Derwin James only being able to play one side at a time. This may open the door for either of the bigger recruits, Benjamin St-Juste or Trikweze Bridges, to supplant any need for Taylor to get starting team snaps. The key here will be offering an improvement on special teams, Ja’Sir flashed at times with some fantastic effort snaps but he is an inconsistent finisher which makes his tenure vulnerable. The additions of Myles Purchase and Nikko Reed show me that the team wanted true nickel players in the DB room and I am curious to see what this means for Tarheeb Still.

Position Reset Evaluation

Robert Mays from The Athletic said it best; corner used to be a ceiling position where your defensive success depended upon how high your talent at that spot could take you. It was man on man, get your best corner to lock down one side of the field and you can slow down almost anybody you come across. Now, in a two high zone heavy league, corner is a floor position whereby you need guys who can give you enough time to win in other ways. Jesse Minter has shown what he can do with the right players with the right skills even though they may not be star names, well not yet anyway. When everyone was healthy last season he used a combination of two 5th rounders, a free agent cast off and an inherited player who has gone unsigned since the Bolts chose not to retain him. Yet the Chargers ranked 4th in EPA per pass attempt. It was therefore the logical path to continue exploring this avenue and I don’t think we should expect to see significant spending at the position until this strategy has been proven to be flawed.

With this philosophy in mind, Jesse Minter tasked Joe Hortiz with recruiting players with specific skill sets who were considered less talented because of individual weaknesses. This approach should sound familiar as the Kansas City Chiefs have been using it to help build their impressive defense under Steve Spagnuolo. Brad Veach has done a stellar job at giving ‘Spags’ the players with specific tools which he needed to turn the sum of their parts into a potent unit. This mentality aligns with the Moneyball strategy, of which I know very little about other than through the lens of Bennett Miller and Aaron Sorkin’s brilliant 2011 film. Whilst this is a more analytics based approach, the valuation of specific traits within players others have discounted, runs true to what Veach, and now Hortiz, are looking to provide their defensive coordinators with. I will leave the baseball references there I promise!

St-Juste, Bridges and Rogers have the size and length. Hart, Still and Oladokun have the coverage skills. Jackson and Leonard have the speed. Taylor, Purchase and Reed have the slot skills. Yet almost every single player in the cornerback room has cross-positional experience and special teams skills. This may not be a flashy group with a distinct lack of big names but this kind of depth and versatility is how you build championship winning rosters. It is a vastly improved group in terms of what it allows Minter to do and I’m so excited to see how he orchestrates the usage of these skill sets. Overall I think he has the tools he needs to take the secondary to a whole other level which should be a daunting realization for opposing teams to come upon.