The New England Patriots did not stand a chance the last time they faced off against the Los Angeles Chargers, getting blown out 40-7 in front of their home crowd in December 2024. While a lot has changed in the 12-plus months since, one thing has not:<\/p>\n
Derwin James remains a problem.<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old safety was a menace against the Patriots last season, registering a pair of sacks as well as a fumble recovery. Naturally, New England is putting him in the spotlight heading into its wild card playoff game against L.A. coming up on Sunday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s got really good instincts when he blitzes, whether to go inside or go outside,\u201d said head coach Mike Vrabel on Wednesday. \u201cI think he has a passion; there\u2019s a love for football; there\u2019s a play demeanor. He\u2019s a very good tackler. He can cover. He matches up. He has versatility to play down, close to the line of scrimmage. He can play in the deeper part of the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDerwin James is probably as good of a unique defensive piece that we\u2019ve played all year,\u201d added offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels on Thursday. \u201cHe plays safety, linebacker, nickel, he blitzes, he\u2019s down there in the front, he\u2019ll line up in the A-gaps. He\u2019s a special player.\u201d<\/p>\n
James entered the NFL as a first-round draft pick in 2018 and since then has been named to four All-Pro teams as well as five Pro Bowls, including in 2025. A veteran of 102 combined regular season and playoff games, he is a jack of all trades and center piece for a Chargers defense among the best in football this year.<\/p>\n
During the regular season, he contributed three interceptions, two sacks and a forced fumble to the unit\u2019s effort. And while it has been some time since Vrabel and McDaniels saw him up close \u2014 September 2023 and December 2022, respectively \u2014 both are well aware of his disruptive potential.<\/p>\n
The same is true for quarterback Drake Maye, who was on the other side of the Chargers\u2019 blowout win last season.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s relentless,\u201d Maye said. \u201cHe\u2019s a great football player. I played him last year and got to know him a little bit at the Pro Bowl. He\u2019s a great dude. He flies around. He\u2019s got good instincts. He\u2019s punching at the ball. He\u2019s good in the run game. He\u2019s good in the pass game. He plays some man coverage on third down. He\u2019s always around the football. He\u2019s got a knack for the football, and he\u2019s had that probably since he started playing. He\u2019s a great player. A lot of respect for him, and we\u2019ve got to find out on every play where he\u2019s at.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New England Patriots did not stand a chance the last time they faced off against the Los…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":664517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2064],"tags":[241,7,1014,262,2444,2443,52113,91604,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-664516","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-football","10":"tag-los-angeles","11":"tag-los-angeles-chargers","12":"tag-losangeles","13":"tag-losangeleschargers","14":"tag-new-england-patriots-first-read","15":"tag-new-england-patriots-playoffs","16":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115861122692973265","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664516","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=664516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}