Quote:
Originally Posted by RealSNR
I love shitting on James and his injuries as much as anybody, but I think the contract is worth the risk if you're the Chargers.
He's really only missed significant time once in his career. And I know he had some issues in college, too, but we used to call Keenan Allen an injury prone player early in his career, but since 2017 he's only missed three games, and I think two of those were due to COVID in 2020.
Some guys can have bad luck early on but then whether through luck or changes in conditioning or whatever figure out how to stay on the field.
Again, not saying he's going to be Brett Favre out there or anything, only that I think the Chargers are smart to take the plunge on the extension now. Roll the dice, because you're going to need to win some gambles if you want to eventually stop playing little brother to the Chiefs
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The worry I would have if I'm LAC is that his injury was a foot injury that seemed to linger. That's very similar to what we saw with Watkins, who just never recaptured his explosion.
James doesn't need to be the kind of athlete he was as a rookie to be a difference maker. But to be the kind of HoF talent he demonstrated he was in 2018, he absolutely does. Last year he wasn't quite as electric as he was before the foot. Now if he was just recovering a bit, cool - he'll still be worth that deal. But if that's who he is now, I'm not sure he'll live up to that kind of contract.
But again - what choice did the Chargers really have? He's absolutely critical to their defense.