Cleveland Browns: Should Derwin James get a look?

Derwin James out of Florida State is an incredibly talented prospect but he’s not a great for the Cleveland Browns in the 2018 NFL Draft, at least not at safety.

As people get around to viewing more prospects, they throw around ideas as to particular fits and possibilities for their team. Leading up to the scouting combine, one that has been gaining some popularity is the idea that the Cleveland Browns could select Florida State’s Derwin James, either at four or after trading down. It’s not difficult to understand what makes him an attractive prospect, but his fit in the Browns defense is up for debate.

Derwin James is enormous, listed 6-3, 215 pounds and he has incredible speed and overall movement skills. He only played two seasons at Florida State as he missed what was his true sophomore season after suffering a torn meniscus. He more than lived up to his massive expectations this past season before declaring for the draft.

Assuming he tests well, he has the production that suggest he’ll be a nice player in the league, so it comes down to the tape.

James played safety and some linebacker in the Noles defensive scheme. They had him do a little bit of everything. He’d blitz, attack the run, play man coverage and then drop him deep in zone as the last line of defense. Watching him fly around the field, change directions and go find the ball is impressive to behold, but he’s not great at everything.

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James is maybe at his best playing man. Receivers, backs or tight ends, James can get in an opponent’s hip pocket, run with them, then find the ball and make a play on it. He can attack forward as a blitzer, putting pressure on the quarterback and making plays on the opponent’s side of the line of scrimmage.

James, for the most part, makes pretty good run reads. He certainly seems to understand when he’s the hot or cold defender, knowing which lane he’s supposed to take away from the opponent. He’s not consistent when it comes to getting through trash to the ball carrier and can get stuck in the wash. There’s a lot to work with in this part of his game and it could improve dramatically.

The problem for James is playing in space. Too often, he seems unsure of what to do when he’s in space and tends not to move really at all. His eyes follow the play but there are plenty of examples where James barely moved at all. It makes him look far slower than he should, reducing his effectiveness overall. Maybe it’s an area he will improve upon with time and coaching, but to this point, his body and traits might suggest it’s something he’d excel at but the tape doesn’t show it.

This is where it becomes a bit of a problem for the Browns. James is a prototypical strong safety. Play the run, some man coverage responsibilities and a few extras. The problem is the Browns have a strong safety in Derrick Kindred, who had a really nice year for them and then Jabrill Peppers, last year’s first round pick, who is more suited to play strong safety and that’s the job he was picked to play. Even though James appears to be a better prospect than both of them, it’s pretty redundant.

Enter the discussion of the angel concept. This is the gimmick Browns defensive coordinator Gregg Williams used last year which had Peppers often playing 18 yards deep at the start of plays. The idea was to prevent getting beat deep and make it so Peppers would be exclusively looking forward to make his job simpler. Some of this was because Peppers was so green and part of this was because Williams didn’t trust his corners.

WIlliams attempted to sell this with Peppers, saying that it was made for Sean Taylor, because he was just such a tremendous player. Maybe it was, but the scheme is terrible. Yes, it prevented the Browns from getting beat deep for most of the year, which is exactly what it’s designed to do. But as the Browns should this year, it enabled teams to gash them underneath and some of the better receivers in the league demolished them in the middle of the field and after the catch.

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The Browns aren’t likely to sit on their hands at the corner position. They are going to make a serious run at Trumaine Johnson in free agency and could look to grab another early corner in the draft for life after Jason McCourty. If they also add a truer free safety that has a better feel for the position, the angel concept shouldn’t be a part of the Browns defense this year, save at the end of the game or incredibly long yardage situations.

There’s little sense to pick James in order to continue an ineffective defensive scheme. James is a questionable fit at the angel position anyway, but even moreso as a true free safety. And should Gregg Williams be fired in a year, the Browns are sitting there with a pile of strong safeties and questions on how to use them.

James stands out as someone who could be a fantastic strong safety for a team. And if the Browns didn’t already have two, after trading down, he could be a great option. There is one other position that James could make a great deal of sense for, however, and fit in with the Browns; corner.

It certainly would be unorthodox to put a 6-3, 215-pound player out on the perimeter, but James does have a lot of corner skills and it’s been done in the past. The Seattle Seahawks won the Super Bowl with 6-4, 220-pound Brandon Browner at corner.

James is effective in man coverage, he’s physical at the line of scrimmage and he knows how to play the ball. His size and tackling make him a threat on the perimeter against the run and as a blitz option as well. It’s believed James played closer to 205 pounds at the end of the season when he was at his best anyway, so trim down, take advantage of his length and physicality out on an island.

In nickel and dime situations, James could slide inside to the slot corner or even a linebacker position to maximize the amount of speed and coverage ability on the field. James obviously could be a versatile player in a defense, which is no different than how the Seminoles employed him in Tallahassee.

Corner is a massive projection for James, but based on his tape, it looks like a better fit for him than free safety. When he knows exactly what he’s supposed to be doing, he’s an impact player with supreme athleticism. The reality is that a team would almost certainly value higher at strong safety than the Browns or anyone else would at corner, but this goes to underline the point that James sounds better than he is when it comes to Cleveland as a fit.

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There are a number of reasons to like Derwin James as a prospect. He’s big, strong, athletic and he’s been really productive at Florida State. He will likely make a team very happy, but it probably won’t be the Cleveland Browns. It’s just not a great fit given what they’ve done with this defense. It’s possible the Browns still take James, but if they do, it likely means the end of player like Peppers or Kindred and it doesn’t really address a hole. Rather, it uses a premium pick to upgrade a position they sought to address just last year in the first round, which is hardly ideal. There are simply better options that can do more to help the Browns.