{"id":42394,"date":"2025-05-11T19:33:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-11T19:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/42394\/"},"modified":"2025-05-11T19:33:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-11T19:33:09","slug":"the-clemson-insider-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/42394\/","title":{"rendered":"The Clemson Insider"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Clemson safety RJ Mickens has signed his rookie deal with the Los Angeles Chargers.<\/p>\n

The Chargers took Mickens on Day 3 of the 2025 NFL Draft, selecting him in the sixth round with the No. 214 overall pick.<\/p>\n

The Chargers announced Friday<\/a> that they\u2019ve signed seven members of their 2025 draft class, including Mickens:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Los Angeles Chargers today announced that the team has signed seven players selected in the 2025 draft class to rookie contracts \u2014 Oregon defensive lineman Jamaree Caldwell (No. 86 overall), South Carolina outside linebacker Kyle Kennard (No. 125), Auburn wide receiver KeAndre Lambert-Smith (No. 158), Syracuse tight end Oronde Gadsden (No. 165), Pittsburgh guard Branson Taylor (No. 199), Clemson safety RJ Mickens (No. 214) and Florida defensive back Trikweze Bridges (No. 256).\u201d<\/p>\n

An NFL legacy, Mickens recorded 229 tackles (13.5 for loss), seven interceptions, 15 pass breakups and a fumble recovery in his Clemson career from 2020-24. He became the 10th player in school history to play 60 career games, and he started 30 of those contests.<\/p>\n

Last season, Mickens finished third on the team with a career-high 85 tackles (including a career-high 6.0 for loss) while adding seven pass breakups and two interceptions over 13 games (all starts).<\/p>\n

Mickens is the son of former Texas A&M All-American defensive back Ray Mickens, Sr., who was a third-round pick in the 1996 NFL Draft by the New York Jets and played eight seasons with the franchise.<\/p>\n

ESPN\u2019s Matt Miller recently highlighted\u00a0his 100 favorite selections of the 2025 NFL Draft<\/a>\u00a0(subscription required) and named Mickens among them.<\/p>\n

\u201cMickens was one of the biggest value plays of the draft,\u201d Miller wrote. \u201cHe was picked on at times when asked to play deep safety last season, but his impact in the box should get him on the roster as Derwin James Jr.\u2019s backup and a special teams ace.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Clemson safety RJ Mickens has signed his rookie deal with the Los Angeles Chargers. The Chargers took…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2064],"tags":[241,5320,7,5324,5322,1014,262,2444,2443,6,5321,5323,5325],"class_list":{"0":"post-42394","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-chargers","8":"tag-chargers","9":"tag-clemson-insider-podcast","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-gymnastics","12":"tag-hero","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-chargers","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-losangeleschargers","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-noonan","19":"tag-track-and-field","20":"tag-wednesday"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114490874672085780","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}