Jessie Minter will look to make a positive impact as the new Chargers new defensive side coordinator as the team looks to seal a playoff spot this season.
Minter joins his former Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh in LA and will be central to the team’s success, starting with safety Derwin James.
The all-round quality of James was lacking last season as the two-time Pro Bowler in the previous two seasons Ahmad a campaign to forget.
“I’m really, really excited about Derwin and I’ve gotten a chance to get to know him a little bit, just an unbelievable person, unbelievable leader,” Minter told the team’s official website. “The type of mindset that we want to have here on defense is really kind of how he plays already. I’m excited just to sort of try to try to unleash Derwin.”
When asked how he will deploy the talented safety he said, “No. 1, put him in positions to best utilize his skills and — he can do a lot of stuff — but I also think there’s a fine line,” Minter said. “Like, ‘Let’s try to maximize Derwin and allow him to do the things that he’s really, really good at as much as possible.’ Sometimes you can get a guy like that, and you can almost do too much with him and move him around too much. I want him to understand the concepts of the defense so that there’s certainly times that we can maximize his skillset. I think he can really affect the game in a lot of ways.
“He’s a dynamic blitzer, he’s dynamic close to the ball.”
The new DC has identified James as his linchpin on defense, with his talent going hand I’m glove with his leadership skills.
“We want to put him in a position to use his strengths and do all that stuff to the best of his ability,” Minter said.
“But really just most excited about his leadership skills, his eagerness. I feel like he stopped by my office every day the first couple of weeks I was here. He just wanted to talk and wanted to kind of get to know me and what we were trying to build. I like to look at it as a partnership with these guys. Now we’re in this thing together, we’re building this thing together. Really excited about Derwin and the capabilities he has.”
Expect James and Mintner to lead the Chargers to a top-notch season.
