Defensive Back · Los Angeles Chargers

Derwin James

No. 3 · 9th season

His coach calls him Superman. He just calls himself the best.

Some players let the contract talk for them. Derwin James has done that twice — twice the highest-paid safety in the league — and still walks into every room believing the number undersells it.

James plays safety, a position that for a long time had a fairly fixed job description: stay deep, clean up what the front seven missed. The way James plays it, that description no longer fits. His coach doesn't reach for ordinary words to explain it, either. Superman is the one that stuck.

It takes something to carry that kind of reputation and then say out loud that you're the best at what you do. James has said exactly that. No hedging, no 'one of the.' The best.

The question now is just whether the rest of the position catches up to what he's already changed.

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