Jim Harbaugh took over in 2011 with a 6‑10 San Francisco 49ers team and transformed it into a 13‑3 powerhouse that was one muffed punt from the Super Bowl. Everyone was amazed at how fast he converted a team of skilled but underperforming defenders into the league’s enforcers. A young Colin Kaepernick referred to it as organized chaos, but Patrick Willis responded that the Coach allowed them to hunt. That one‑year transformation not only brought the Niners back to life; it stamped Harbaugh’s coaching passport with one visa word: believer. Ten years later the veteran coach is attempting a similar turnaround in Los Angeles. He’s beginning with a belief he brought from Stanford to Ann Arbor: surround yourself with players who win games and draw huddles.

That belief came into crystalline clarity this off-season as trade rumors circulated around Derwin James. Outside observers cited the Chargers‘ impending cap constraint and asked publicly if making the switch to draft‑and‑develop was the answer. A few national programs intimated that the safety could be turned around for first-round capital after 2024. But those rumors barely made the rumor mill before those close to the situation dismissed them. From team voices, Harbaugh considers James untouchable. As one YouTube analyst put it, “He’s the Justin Herbert of the defense……He’s one of those guys whose gonna stay with Chargers for the entirety of his career He’s not going anywhere”. Referencing the quarterback who’s seen as the franchise’s offensive backbone. 

Harbaugh’s argument is based on twenty years of observing great hybrids lean the field. In San Francisco, it was Willis, NaVorro Bowman, and young Aldon Smith. At Michigan, it was Aidan Hutchinson and Daxton Hill. In Los Angeles, it’s Derwin James, a three-time Pro Bowler who blitzes like a linebacker, covers like a corner, and quarterbacks like a free safety. Last year, James took 90-plus snaps in five different alignments and still led all safeties with sacks.

Even financially, trading James never made sense. Yes, his cap hit jumps north of $25 million next year, but so does the league’s revenue‑fueled spending limit. Moving him would trigger more than $19 million in dead money. Essentially paying for greatness to wear another uniform. Derwin’s value is bigger than a ledger line. Unless things suddenly take a drastic turn, like a career-ending injury or league-wide market meltdown. James appears set to retire in powder blue and gold.

Harbaugh counting on another dominant year from NFL’s sack-leading Safety

James led the safety sack list in 2024 with five, even though he logged significant time in deep halves because of injury elsewhere in the secondary. With less back-end babysitting in 2025, the 28-year-old might be able to prowl all the more forcefully. Minter’s playbook owes a debt to the pressure-simulated looks that served to quiet Ohio State and Alabama last winter, fronts on which edge threats orbit inside, linebackers mug the A-gaps, and a wildcard rusher masters the snap count. In Los Angeles that wildcard is nearly always No. 3.

The staff maintains liberty doesn’t necessarily mean riskiness. Position meetings involve ‘green‑light/ red‑light’ guidelines: James is free to attack unless some back‑end keys flash red empty sets, tight split stacks, or motion menacing a pop pass behind him. That combination of structure and freedom is reflective of how Jim Harbaugh unleashed Troy Polamalu clones at Stanford and hybrid defenders in Ann Arbor. Jim believes great players solve problems coaches can’t see. 

Outside the chalkboard, leadership weight makes James indispensable. Teammates repeat mantras he does in walkthroughs, rookies learn his notebook margins, and coordinators rely on his eyes when comms are lost in noisy road stadiums. At summer OTAs, James stopped practice to straighten out an alignment mistake by a reserve corner before coaches even realized. Those intangible moments reinforce Harbaugh’s business argument: take away James, and you pull out not only sacks and tackles. But a live-action instructor whose presence speeds up development down the depth chart.

There is admittedly a health factor. James has missed games in two of his first six years, and his seek-and-destroy approach invites contact. The Chargers have quietly stocked the safety room with multi-position depth. Rookie Jaden Hicks and veteran JT Woods to maintain manageable workloads. Look for snap counts in the low 1,000s rather than the 1,200-plus marathons of previous regimes. Harbaugh prefers to use a fresher version of James in January over a stat-tacked but worn‑out star by Week 15.

Derwin James is not a commodity. He is a beam of construction in Jim Harbaugh’s new rebuild. One designed to take a hit and absorb the shot. If his past is any predictor, hold aloft something sparkly high into the air. For Los Angeles, the task is simple. Allow No. 3 to hunt, and observe the ripple effect transform a franchise once based on near misses into one founded on faith.