{"id":862377,"date":"2026-04-09T15:03:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T15:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/862377\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T15:03:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T15:03:17","slug":"2026-chargers-nfl-draft-prospects-safeties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/862377\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Chargers NFL Draft Prospects: Safeties"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to Part 6 of our draft preview series, which will be a position-by-position look at key prospects and where the Chargers roster stands ahead of the 2026 NFL Draft<\/a>. This series will include a look at which prospects could be options for the Chargers later this month.<\/p>\n

We chatted with NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah to break down the safeties in this draft class. Jeremiah can be found on X\/Twitter @MoveTheSticks<\/a> for his analysis.<\/p>\n

\n Chargers status at safety<\/p>\n

Derwin James Jr., Elijah Molden, Tony Jefferson, RJ Mickens and Kendall Williamson<\/p>\n

The Chargers have a mix of elite talent and dependable talent in their safety room.<\/p>\n

Derwin James<\/a>, who has earned back-to-back Second-Team All-Pro honors, leads the way on and off the field as the alpha leader.<\/p>\n

James finished the regular season second on the team with 94 total tackles to go along with seven passes defensed, 2.0 sacks and six tackles for loss.<\/p>\n

He also tacked on three interceptions, which tied a career-high and were the most he’s had since his rookie season in 2018.<\/p>\n

Molden, who signed a multi-year contract extension in 2025, said in January that he’s looking to bounce back after a season in which he missed five games due to injury and didn’t record an interception, forced fumble or fumble recovery.<\/p>\n

Even so, Molden’s veteran presence on the back end allows James to roam near the line of scrimmage as a hybrid nickel defender.<\/p>\n

Tony Jefferson<\/a>, a fan favorite, recently linked back up with the Chargers as a free agent and will once again provide veteran leadership and a tone-setting style of play.<\/p>\n

R.J. Mickens<\/a>, a 2025 sixth-round pick, offers upside as a depth piece who could work his way into a more prominent role, while Kendall Williamson is a key special teams player who stayed with the Chargers this offseason as an exclusive rights free agent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to Part 6 of our draft preview series, which will be a position-by-position look at key prospects…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":862378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[116149,37,7,34,38,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-862377","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-2026-draft-editorial","9":"tag-app-homepage","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-homepage-cp","12":"tag-homepage-headlines","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116375362193270354","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862377","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=862377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/862378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=862377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=862377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=862377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}