Derwin James
Getty
Derwin James
While the Los Angeles Chargers have remained mostly relaxed this offseason, hearts started beating rapidly after the news from their star safety Derwin James. Scheduled to play in Tom Brady’s Flag Football Classic James reported that due to a “minor injury” he will be sitting out, replaced by the Vikings’ Harrison Smith.
Fortunately for the Chargers, the injury does not seem as severe as it could have been. Still, this is not the first time that the Chargers have not had to deal with the potential loss of a player before training camp due to bizarre circumstances. Last year, after signing Najee Harris, they had to deal with a fireworks accident that saw him be questionable in training camp with an eye injury.
A Familiar Concern: Chargers and Unusual Offseason Injuries
The fact that James has been prone to injury throughout his career should be encouraging to Chargers fans though. The last two seasons, he had a perfect bill of health and ended up making the Pro Bowl in both years. When he’s on the field, many believe that he is among the best safeties in football.
Still, the five time Pro Bowler took precautionary steps to not aggravate the situation. Now with the Chargers, he will be looked after so that the extent of the injury does not worsen. While the hosts of the events, Fanatics, released a statement concerning the status of James, they did not go into detail about the severity of the injury, leaving many curious as to how “minor” James’ injury really is.
Precaution Over Panic: Why the Chargers Can Afford Patience
For now, all the Chargers can really focus is preparing for OTAs and training camp without worrying about James’ status just yet. Because it happened early in the offseason, they can handle it without too much concern amongst the team.
Also, because of the fact that James is a key member of the squad and has never been injured before, it won’t distract the team from being able to go about their free agency business. The Chargers still have a lot of work to do to improve the squad before truly focusing on the status of James.
If they are able to continue acquiring talent, James’ injury will grow less and less concerning by the day. After all, while flag football is not physical, it is still better to be safe than sorry when assessing how you feel. For James, dealing with his first injury seems to be the least of the Chargers’ worries.
For now, without any updates about what James injured and how, we cannot really say what will transpire as a result. Knowing however, that James himself took the necessary precautions should settle Chargers fans’ concerns. The silver lining is definitely that it came early, where the Chargers have the time to deal with this as efficiently and quickly as possible so James will be ready for offseason activities.
Still, with the memory of Najee Harris’s incident on the minds of many fans, you never want to hear news about a star player going down in the offseason.