Albert Breer on Derwin James Extension, Josh Jacobs Arrest, Brendan Sorsby Update

Harbaugh actually saw a lot of himself in Derwin James.

All right.

Welcome in to the Breer Report for Wednesday, May 27th.

By the end of this week, almost all the NFL teams will be in the OTAs.

That's ostensibly the beginning of football practice for the 2026 season.

That's when teams start to go 11 on 11 .

That, of course, precedes the mandatory minicamp.

Which precedes the NFL's annual summer break, which of course, is the last breather we'll get before the 2026 season starts in earnest with the beginning of training camp.

We have three topics to get to today, and the first one is very good news for the Los Angeles Chargers.

They get Derwin James signed to a three-year, $75.

6 million dollar deal.

Now, just from a numbers standpoint, and we'll dig into the details later on after we get a hold of them, but from a numbers standpoint, this pushes the safety, the safety market to a spot way beyond where it's been at over $25 million per year.

And that's reflective of just how important Derwin James has been to Jim Harbaugh as he's built his program in the last couple of years.

In Los Angeles.

And I can still remember going there two summers ago, um, during Jim Harbaugh's first training camp, and how everyone there said that Harbaugh really identified with James and how James is going to be a flag bearer for him because they had the same passion for football, they had the same energy for the game.

Um, and Jim Harbaugh actually saw a lot of himself in Derwin James.

And so, there's that piece of it, of course, you, when you're paying somebody at that level and pushing the market of a position past where it's been before, you wanna feel really good about the person and obviously, the Chargers do.

This is also about who he is as a football player.

And in that style of defense, that Ravens style.

Style of defense.

We've seen these outside safeties play really important roles.

We saw it with Kyle Hamilton in Baltimore when Mike McDonald got there a few years ago, and, and, and since then, what an important piece of what they do defensively.

Mike, uh, Kyle Hamilton is for the Ravens now, Jesse Minter, the old Chargers defensive coordinator going there.

Um, he's gonna make, you know, Kyle Hamilton a huge part of what they do defensively.

The Seahawks, you know, Mike McDonald is there now, and Nicky Minori, how important he's been.

If you look at the way that the Seahawks beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl, they were able to play nickel the entire game.

So 70 out of 71 snaps, they had 3 safeties on the field.

And what Nikki Minmori did was gave them scheme flexibility where they could play as if they were in their base defense cause Nicky Minorri could support the run while being in a nickel look.

And because Nicky Minorri is strong enough against the run , the Patriots were unable to run the Seahawks out of that look, which gave the Seahawks an advantage all game long, and it's given these teams an advantage in the way that they play.

And that's the role that Derwin Jones, Derwin James plays.

Uh, for the Los Angeles Chargers.

So all the way around from a character standpoint, from a football standpoint, Derwin James checks every box.

He's also a guy who's hurt a lot in college.

So, really cool to see a guy like that make it to his 3rd contract.

Congrats to Derwin James, and that's a job well done by the Los Angeles Chargers.

Tough to change the subject to this, but in, in, in, in , in tougher news.

Um, Packers running back Josh Jacobs, um, was arrested on, uh, on, on Tuesday and booked on 5 charges.

Those charges, uh, battery, domestic abuse, criminal damage to property, domestic abuse, disorderly conduct domestic abuse.

Strangulation and and suffocation and intimidation of a victim.

Obviously, the NFL has taken these cases very seriously over the last decade.

Um, you know, and, and, and, and, and everybody who was around at the time remembers, um, that September and October, November, um, when the league was dealing with the cases of Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson and Greg Hardy.

And in the time since they've taken these cases very seriously and you know, at the same time, you do want to give Josh Jacobs, who's been a good citizen up until now, the benefit of the doubt and you know he's innocent until proven guilty , but obviously these are very, very, very serious allegations.

This should be taken seriously.

And, you know, so you, you, you, 100% like that's where the focus with all of this should be.

There's, of course, a football component to it, and that's why we're talking about Josh Jacobs in the first place because he is a football player.

And for the Packers now, um, with free agency done, with the draft done, if Josh Jacobs is unavailable in the fall, that's going to be, um, a very serious football thing too, you know, not as serious as the human part of this, of course, but a very serious.

Um, thing to deal with for their football team because if you look at it, take Josh Jacobs out of the equation, if he is out of the equation, Jordan Love would be their returning leading rusher.

Um, and they have 5 running backs on the roster right now, and between the 5 of them, they have a, they, they rushed for a collective 106 yards last year, and all 106 of those yards belong to Chris Brooks, who was on the team last year.

And they also have Marshaw Lloyd, the former South Carolina running back, former 3rd-round pick, who has 15 career rushing yards.

He was on injured reserve last year.

Pierre Strong, um, he's bounced around some, um, you know, over the last few years, was on the Packers roster last year, did not log a carry.

Damian Martinez, um, was a rookie last year on the, on the Packers' practice squad.

And then you had Jaden Nixon, who was just signed as an undrafted free agent.

So, obviously, the focus here should be on um what Josh Jacobs is, is, is, is dealing with from a non-football perspective.

But if um it winds up that these allegations, if there's validity to these allegations and it winds up affecting um whether or not Josh Jacobs can play in the fall, then, you know, there's a, there's a football component to this that could impact the Packers.

In a very big way.

Finally, our third topic, um, there was news in the Brendan Soarsby front, um, uh, on, on Tuesday.

The NCAA has now officially denied his request to have his eligibility restored for the 2026 season.

Additionally, I'm told that, um, Soresby's camp has been told that the NCAA does not plan to negotiate with him.

And so part of the reason why Soarsby hired Jeffrey Kessler, who is, you know, one of the most accomplished labor lawyers in all of sports, um, to represent him in this case was to try to expedite, um, some sort of, some sort of closure on the case.

And the hope was that maybe they could negotiate some sort of settlement where Soy would accept the suspension and get back on the field.

We now know that's not gonna happen.

So really where this goes now is to the injunction and The date for the injunction has been set by the court in Lubbock County, Texas for Monday.

If Brendan Sosby is able to get the injunction, then he can play while his case is in the courts.

And his case could be in the courts for the entire 2026 season.

So, if he gets the injunction, he plays for Texas Tech in the fall.

Um, of course, pending any sort of appeals, um, from, from, from, from the, the NCAA.

Um, if he plays through the fall, of course, you know, they could have delayed tactics and push that thing through the courts, and so he could wind up playing the full season while this thing is still tied up in the legal system.

If he is denied the injunction, then the likelihood is he turns around and applies for the supplemental draft.

The, the, the deadline to declare for the supplemental draft is June 22nd.

And then we're talking about a different timeline for Brendan Soarsby.

We're talking about potentially, um, you know, having a pro day, and I, my, my understanding is that would be the Dallas area.

The NFL has given them a window of July 5th through the 12th to hold a pro day or have individual workouts with individual teams.

I would assume if things go, do go down that road, um, you're gonna see Brendan Soars be doing a pro day again in Dallas, and then maybe working out for a couple of teams privately.

And then there will be the actual draft, which would come at some point in late July.

I think it's important to note here too, that Brendan Soresby is seen as a high-end quarterback prospect.

A guy who I think most people would view as somebody going in the first round or the second round, and I know some people um regard as a potential top five pick for the 2027 class.

And what's interesting about this to me is there are a bunch of teams who have kept their powder dry.

And who didn't overreach for a quarterback, um , in April.

And so you can look at the Jets, you can look at the Cardinals, you can look at the Browns, you can look at the Dolphins as teams.

Maybe they did spend a pick in April, maybe they spent a pick the year before in a quarterback, but they haven't done anything that would prevent them from spending a first-rounder in 2027 on one.

And if they're thinking about spending a first round in 2027 on one, and they're studying that class, and that could be Arch Manning, that could be CJ Carr, that could be Julian Saan.

Obviously, Dante Moore is prominent in that class, probably the number one guy right now.

If they look at it and they view Brendan Soarsby as good or a better prospect than the other guys who are gonna be in the 27 draft, then they have to consider taking a swing on this guy now.

And because of the silent auction nature of this, do you spend a first-rounder, do you spend a second-rounder on him?

We'll see.

Then there's the NFL side of this, which is what does the NFL do?

Does the NFL try to enact some sort of suspension, ala what they did with Terrell Pryor in 2011.

How does that affect how teams view Brendan Soarsby?

There's a lot to dig through here.

And this, if he enters the supplemental draft, would be as prominent a prospect that we've had for the supplemental draft in decades.

Um, the last time I think you had somebody that was approximating this sort of level of prospect might have been Josh Gordon in 2012.

And when you're talking about a quarterback on this level, I mean, we're going back to the days of Steve Walsh in 1990, Bernie Kosar.

Um, in, uh Steve Walsh in '89, Bernie Kosar in 1984.

It's been a long, long time since there has been the chance to get a bona fide franchise quarterback in the supplemental draft, and there are teams that view Brendan Soarsby that way.

So a very interesting case to follow and a big, big day coming on Monday in that case, you know, with the hearing in Lubbock, Texas.

And, you know, we'll see if the judge rules from the bench or if he takes it under consideration.

Um, but one way or the other, I know Soarsby's legal team would love to get some clarity on this, um, well ahead of that June 22nd deadline to declare for the supplemental draft.

Appreciate you guys coming out.

We have a couple more of these coming for you this week.

As always, you can leave your comments down below here on the YouTube page or you can get to me on my social media at Albert Breer on Twitter, at Albert R.

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Appreciate you guys coming out.

We will see you Thursday for a mailbag edition of the rear Report.