AJ Finley helped St. Paul’s Episcopal win the AHSAA Class 5A championships in 2015 and 2017. As a junior, Finley ran for 994 yards, and as a senior, he had four interceptions for the Mobile school.

Over his last three seasons at Ole Miss, Finley started 34 games, intercepted eight passes and recorded 228 tackles.

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That didn’t get him into the NFL Draft. But he’s still preparing this week for his first NFL regular-season game.

Finley signed with the Los Angeles Chargers as a rookie free agent in May, and when the NFL team reduced its 90-player preseason roster to the regular-season limit of 53 last week, Finley stayed on it as a 6-foot-2, 202-pound safety.

“We feel like he’s a good, young prospect to work in,” Chargers coach Brandon Staley said in explaining the decision to keep Finley. “He’s got a pro body for safety – a really good body. Again, he can see back there. He’s a commander. We felt like for a rookie, he really absorbed the playbook and then applied it. In practice, he was very consistent in making plays. We felt like he’s a very good tackler and brings some size to the position. Just a good prospect to be developing. …

“Just felt like AJ was the right guy to be choosing at this process. We just felt like he showed a lot as a rookie that we didn’t want to lose. We didn’t want to risk him getting to a claim-type situation. Again, for all those reasons I mentioned, we think that he’s a good prospect to work with.”

In Los Angeles’ three preseason games, Finley was on the field for 76 defensive snaps and 41 special-teams plays and recorded six tackles on defense and another tackle on special teams.

Two other undrafted rookies from Alabama high schools and colleges survived the cut to 53 this season – Auburn High School linebacker Mohamoud Diabate and Alabama cornerback Eli Ricks with the Philadelphia Eagles.

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The Chargers will kick off their 2023 season against the Miami Dolphins at 3:25 p.m. CDT Sunday at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.