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
Weaknesses
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
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