New York Giants Draft Prospect: CB D.J. James

Nick has the film breakdown on another potential CB2 candidate.

D.J. James, CB

Height: 5’11
Weight: 170 lbs.
Hands: 8⅛”
Arms: 31”
Wingspan: 72”
Class: Senior (5th-Year)
School: Auburn
Stats

A former three-star recruit out of Spanish Fort High School in Spanish Fort, Alabama, where he was the 15th-ranked Alabama prospect and the 43rd CB in the 2019 cycle. James initially attended Oregon for three seasons before transferring to Auburn. He started 24 games and was a Second-Team All-SEC in 2022, his first year at Auburn. 

James attended the Reese’s Senior Bowl and had positive reps throughout the practice. However, his measurements set a negative tone for his attendance at the event. James was a couple of inches shorter than advertised, but, more concerningly, he was only 170 pounds. I’m interested to see what James does with his weight ahead of the Combine, where he’ll likely test.

Strengths

• Very fast in a straight line - good acceleration when he opens up
• Maintains good speed when moving laterally - very agile
• Explosive jumper who highpoints well over his size
• Good smooth athlete with quick feet and loose hips
• Solid overall body control with a good stance at the line of scrimmage
• Solid jam ability - isn’t scared to get physical despite lack of size
• Solid feet in press - quick, but will false step
• Fluid enough to play man coverage
• Does a good job getting into the hip pocket of WRs vs. slants, gets the correct hand into the opponent’s mitts
• Solid eyes for zone concepts and pattern-match principles
• Executed two-trap well vs. 3x1 - San Jose State
• When square to LOS, quick to click & close downhill on underneath routes
• Good overall ball skills
• Very good at defending 1v1 IF he gets his head around promptly
• Wrestled plenty of football out of the hands of receivers when they attempted to secure passes
• Disruptive, with good technique, coming downhill from zone/man to play through the catch point
• Split snaps on the right and left side
• Plays with a chip

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Weaknesses

• Concerningly lightweight at the Senior Bowl (170 pounds)
• Short arms, sub-six-foot
• Modest ability to unlock his recovery speed for a player of his athletic ability
• Takes too long for him to open his stride
• Takes too long to close width in transitions when in positions going against the leverage he is attempting to execute
• This impacts him more when offensive players subtly push off
• Lost body relationship with too many receivers when QBs improvised
• Led to big plays and touchdowns vs. Alabama, Cal, and Ole Miss
• Aggressive but only will get bullied by bigger receivers - modest play strength for CB
• Missed too many tackles (7 in 2023, 13.7%)
• Not an authoritative tackler for a CB

Summary

James played in an Auburn defense that used match principles, which positioned the outside CB in outside shade in Cover-3 to influence inside routes to waiting defenders. 

When he was outside of the divider line, James was aligned inside shade and used the sideline as a teammate - while he possesses a smooth side-shuffle and solid execution to stay in phase during movement in the latter technique, an apparent lack of immediacy out of breaks when the play broke down for the offense led to too many completions against him. 

There were also some miscommunications in 3x1 or 2v2 stacks between James and same-side safety in palms/quarters. Still, some of those errors aren’t necessarily an indictment on James.

James' foot-quickness and movement skills while maintaining leverage are some of his strengths and may result in him being best in a match system - those principles are used across defenses in the NFL. His ability to be annoying and disruptive at the catch point is also a reason to get excited. Still, his reactive quickness could improve, and he’s smaller. He’ll likely get a run in the slot if he struggles on the outside.

GRADE: 6.21

Nick Falato

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