Chargers Waive King, Resolve 4 Contract Disputes

After a week of negotiation that was slow to yield results, the Chargers moved with seismic abruptness Friday, resolving four contract disputes and abandoning the attempt to recast Linden King as an inside linebacker.

The Chargers waived King, a nine-year veteran, and acquired another linebacker, Thomas Benson, from the Atlanta Falcons for a conditional, low-round draft choice.

Meanwhile, the backlog of unsigned players all but disappeared as the Chargers came to terms with first-round draft choice James FitzPatrick, fourth-round selections Ty Allert and Tommy Taylor and veteran running back Lionel James.

FitzPatrick, an offensive tackle from USC, accepted a five-year deal worth $1.85 million after the Chargers threatened to trade him to Green Bay or Buffalo in an attempt to break his weeklong holdout.

His agent, Leigh Steinberg, seemed amused by the threat. “Negotiating gets dreary and dispiriting,” he said, “so I could appreciate their cleverness.

“Actually, there was a statistical probability of zero of him ever reporting to one of those cold-weather places. He bought an open-top Jeep recently and it wouldn’t have worked.”

FitzPatrick left a message on his answering machine Friday that he was out buying snowshoes.

In a serious vein, the 6-foot-8, 305-pound lineman said he had been studying the Chargers’ playbook and terminology, and was eager to get to work.

“It definitely hurt me to miss this week of practice,” he said. “I’m going to be the guy asking all the questions, but I’m confident I’ll get even real quickly.”

After Friday’s signing flurry, the only player still eluding the Chargers was first-round draft pick Leslie O’Neal, and owner Alex Spanos said he thinks the defensive end’s holdout should end soon.

O’Neal has been offered a deal of approximately the same value as FitzPatrick. Marvin Demoff, his agent, will be here Sunday to talk with General Manager Johnny Sanders.

The Chargers reached an agreement with James, who was entering the option year of his contract, by extending a three-year deal valued at about $900,000, including incentives.

Economics may have had something to do with the decision to dump King, or so the 31-year-old linebacker thought.

“I don’t have any animosity toward the Chargers, but I don’t think this was a coaching decision,” King said. “No one they had out there could physically outperform me, so business and economics have to be part of it.

“They really didn’t give me a chance this year. I’d been thinking something was coming, but not this quickly. When they didn’t use me in the (Thursday) scrimmage, I knew something was happening. They couldn’t get rid of me if I got hurt.”

As recently as Wednesday, Coach Don Coryell had said King was doing well at his new position, and the plan was to employ him against the Rams. However, that plan was scrapped, giving King a reading on his future.

A starter since 1981, King said he regretted that he would not be part of the Chargers’ new defense, which he believes will be a success.

He also said he thought his salary of $350,000 was working against him.

“You work, work, work to get your salary up, but then it helps you get traded (in this case, waived),” King said. “I was 31 and getting a lot of money, and I guess it was hard for them to justify.”

Not so, said Ron Nay, director of scouting and one of Spanos’ chief strategists.

“We’re simply trying to upgrade our defense,” Nay said. “When you’re 28th on defense, you have to move forward with a fresh outlook.

“I think a change of scenery will be good for Linden, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him starting somewhere this year in the National Football League.”

Nay said the Chargers still are negotiating with free-agent linebacker Mike Douglass, who wants more than the $150,000 the team has offered.

While those talks go on, the Chargers will scrutinize Benson, a third-year veteran who never had an impact in Atlanta.

“He got in the doghouse as a rookie when he missed mini-camp and two weeks of summer camp, and he never really got out,” Nay said. “He was drafted by the Leeman Bennett regime and coached by the Dan Henning staff, and he just got caught in a revolving door.”

Benson (6-feet-2, 235 pounds) has 4.5 speed and will be the Chargers’ fastest linebacker afoot. The question is whether he will be able to assimilate their new defensive scheme quickly enough to impress a San Diego staff that has an eye on some young players already on the roster.

Defensive coordinator Ron Lynn agreed with Nay that changes involving veterans were in order.

“To maintain the status quo would be ludicrous,” he said. “The harsh reality is we were last in defense. We’re not looking to make this a purge, but we’ve got to look down the road at what’s best for this team.”

Lynn said he looks at rookies Allert and Taylor as being instinctively suited for inside linebacker, a position King had moved to only this summer in a job switch with Billy Ray Smith.

Lynn also likes the progress shown by a couple of young veterans, Fred Robinson and Mark Fellows.

Fellows, a second-year pro, showed enough in Thursday’s scrimmage with the Rams to earn--temporarily--a starting position at inside linebacker.

“If the season began today, Mark and Shane Nelson would be my starters,” Lynn said. “Of course, that could change tomorrow.”

Fellows may be employed in the same manner the Raiders use Matt Millen, in short-yardage situations. “He’s a stuffer against the run,” Lynn said.

Nelson’s age (30) and injury history, along with Woody Lowe’s age (31) are further concerns of the San Diego defensive chief.

“We like Billy Ray at outside backer and don’t want to be forced to move him back to the inside,” Lynn said. “With our age, we could wind up six games into the season with no (healthy) veteran linebackers except Billy Ray.

“As far as Linden’s future, he just wound up as odd man out. I thought he was making good progress this summer, but we made the decision to rely on the further development of other players. There’s only so many guys you can get ready to play at a position.”

Smith, who is King’s closest friend on the Chargers, said he was shocked by the decision to waive the veteran linebacker.

“He was coming along inside, and he surely wasn’t disappointing,” Smith said. “But this is part of being in pro football, and I grew up around it.

“My father said he never bothered to learn a player’s name until he had been around four years.”

Into this shifting scenario stepped the Texas rookie, Allert, whose arrival was delayed for a week as his father and a procession of two agents settled upon a contract.

Allert said the dispute was resolved when the Chargers added some incentive clauses to the salary he had agreed upon last week.

Allert was in town Thursday, nervously flipping the TV channels and wishing he were taking part in the Rams scrimmage.

“I was here for a month earlier this summer and learned some of the defensive stuff,” Allert said, “but I need to get used to having pads on again after a long break. You can get about as much out of one scrimmage as a week of practice, and I was tired of sitting around.”

What’s next? Well, the Chargers still must get O’Neal in camp, and they are hoping to trade for a proven inside linebacker.

Coryell suggested a major trade may be in the works, and Sanders said he and Nay have contacted every team in the league.

Charger Notes The Chargers waived two rookie safeties, Jeff Sprowls and Billy Robinson. . . . Veterans reporting today will submit to physicals and drug tests. . . . The next practice is Sunday morning.