O’Neal and Chargers in Agreement

The Chargers reached an agreement with first-round draft choice Leslie O’Neal early Sunday evening, ending the player’s two-week holdout and making the team one of the first in the National Football League to sign all its rookies.

O’Neal, a defensive lineman from Oklahoma State, accepted a four-year deal with an option year, believed to be worth a total of $1.9 million.

O’Neal (6-foot-4, 251 pounds) is expected to arrive here this morning, sign his contract, take a physical and probably be ready for an afternoon practice.

“Our coaches thought it was very important to get Leslie signed and in camp if he was going to be a starter for us this year,” General Manager Johnny Sanders said.

Coach Don Coryell agreed, saying O’Neal will be used in Saturday’s exhibition opener against Dallas.

“We know he’s going to be in great shape,” Coryell said. “He was here for a couple of months this spring and he knows what we’re doing. We desperately need him because of our difficult early schedule and our new defensive scheme (which will emphasize the pass rush).”

Sanders spent much of Sunday waiting in his office for a call from O’Neal’s agent, Marvin Demoff.

The agent, who is based in Los Angeles, had worked out the details of an agreement with Sanders but had to get the approval of O’Neal, who was at his home in Little Rock, Ark.

Demoff left Los Angeles and was driving to Canada but finally succeeded in reaching O’Neal from his car telephone, according to Sanders.

Sanders got his call shortly after 8 p.m., and the Chargers got the pass rush specialist they selected with the eighth pick of the first round in this year’s draft.

The Chargers expect O’Neal to team with Lee Williams to give them one of the fastest sets of defensive ends in the NFL.

“Down the road, they could be as good as any pair of ends in the league,” defensive line coach Gunther Cunningham said.