Injuries Scramble Charger Offensive Line

The season opener is little more than two weeks away, but the Chargers still haven’t unscrambled the confusion in their offensive line. The main reason: nagging injuries to a handful of players.

The starters for this Saturday’s exhibition game at San Francisco may well be the starters for the first regular-season game at Buffalo, but the health of a couple of young blockers could alter the picture.

Coach Don Coryell said Wednesday he will start Jim Lachey and Sam Claphan at tackle, Ed White and Dennis McKnight at guard and Don Macek at center against the 49ers. That unit also opened against Dallas last Saturday.

Lachey and Claphan, the junior members of this quintet, will play all or most of the game, according to Coryell, but the three interior linemen will share time with youngsters Bill Elko, Bill Searcey and Jerry Doerger. Ken Dallafior and Mark Stevenson also are available.

But it’s the trio of Elko, Doerger and Searcey that is responsible for the air of intrigue surrounding the line. All three are strong and promising, but all have injuries that have limited their availability in recent days.

Elko, who was moved from defense to offense this year, has a sore toe, the result of being stepped on by a teammate. As Coryell joked, “He’s so tough, you could hit him with a sledgehammer and probably the only thing you could hurt would be his toe. He’d probably chop the thing off, because he doesn’t know what pain is.”

Searcey has a groin injury and Doerger a pulled hamstring.

All three will probably play this week against the 49ers, but there is some concern about the possibility of re-injury. It’s a dilemma coaches face at this time of training camp: final squad cuts are 10 days off, and rookies must be examined, even if their physical condition is far less than 100%.

Doerger, in particular, needs playing time.

“We have to see if he can beat out someone (for a starting job),” Coryell said. “He wants to play in the worst way, and we saw enough of him in our first game to like him.”

The linebacking corps is more settled than the offensive line, but it is not without questions. Still unresolved is the availability of Shane Nelson, who has recovered from the knee injury that kept him sidelined for three years, but hasn’t practiced much because of an Achilles tendon injury.

“We were counting on him, but we haven’t had him at all,” Coryell said. “We thought he would start for us when Mike Green’s status was in doubt, but we’ve been waiting all summer (for the heel injury to get better). The worst thing would be to play him too hard too soon.”

Coryell didn’t specify whether Nelson might be available for limited action at San Francisco.

Another linebacker with a troublesome leg injury is Mike Guendling, who missed all of his rookie season of 1984 with a severely damaged knee. He has made good progress, and Coryell has been told by trainers he should be able to play at some point this year, but he has been placed on the injured reserve list for at least six weeks.

“We can’t count him in our plans, but we were impressed with what we saw this summer,” Coryell said. Guendling participated on a limited basis in several practices.

The rest of the squad has the usual minor injuries, and in abundance. Wide receiver Trumaine Johnson has a sore shoulder, but is expected to participate against the 49ers.

Johnson, who has returned kicks the last two weeks, will relinquish those duties to Lionel James for a game, Coryell said.

Running back Earnest Jackson has bruised ribs and his practice time has been curtailed.