My memory is that James was a 4 star recruit, not 5. Fives are rare, the supposed ultra elite.
IMO, we needed to swing at a great player, not be obsessed with upgrading a recent weakness. Great players transform a franchise. Patch jobs merely allow spotlight to shift to a different area to patch.
I'm not a believer in system fits. That's just another happy adjustment rationale, doomed to failure. Teams like Seattle found great players deep in the draft. In contemporary perspective those choices are applauded as systems fits. They were excellent players. I've witnessed this for 40+ years. There's always one or two teams ahead of the curve in personnel evaluation. In real time fans and analysts prefer to categorize them as system fits. Decades later they are recognized for what they were..terrific players who simply were undervalued when acquired.
I absolutely would have picked Kouandjio above James because at one point he was considered a Top 10 talent. He was indeed a 5 star recruit. I remember that very well. See link below. That's what I prioritize, early demonstrated supreme talent, not so-called system fits and late risers up the draft boards. Let the subjective goofs devalue a player and have him fall to you.
https://footballrecruiting.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1172496