Derwin James #33 of the Los Angeles Chargers (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
The Chargers are missing possibly their best player to start the season in Derwin James.
The Los Angeles Chargers got terrible news on Sunday night when they learned that safety Derwin James is going to miss significant time with a meniscus injury. NFL Network’s Ian Rapaport reported that the superstar suffered the injury in Sunday’s practice. Now he’s going to miss time at the beginning of the season.
The Chargers are already in a weird spot. They might have one of the worst starting quarterbacks in the league in Tyrod Taylor. The Justin Herbert era is on the horizon. The defense was the one thing that the Chargers were looking forward to. Now, it’s the Joey Bosa show.
What’s next for Derwin James?
James currently has multiple options to treat his injury. The Chargers and James could decide to trim the meniscus, which would allow him to come back in around a month, or he could go for a full repair, which would take him out for the first few months of the season. It’s a difficult decision, and if they decide to do the trim, it could eventually need a full repair anyway.
This injury shows how little we should take in early reports. James walked off the field, a sign we usually take as being good news. It still turned out the star safety is going to miss significant time.
There are options out there that the Chargers can use to replace James for now. Obviously, Earl Thomas is out there, but there’s a lot of baggage that comes with that, and if James returns this season it could cause some issues.
James was likely going to put together a very exciting campaign. Now, one of the few superstars on the Chargers this season is now gone. There still needs some testing, but it doesn’t look good for James right now.