Ortmayer: Schroeder Deal Unlikely

Jay Schroeder to the Chargers?

“I don’t think they (the Redskins) are going to trade the guy,” Steve Ortmayer, the team’s director of football operations, said Wednesday.

Ortmayer confirmed that Washington General Manager Bobby Beathard has instructed the Chargers to make an offer for quarterback Schroeder if they are interested.

But Ortmayer said, “I point-blank asked the guy (Beathard), ‘Does that mean you intend to trade Jay Schroeder?’ And he said the answer was, ‘ No. ‘ “

Too bad for Charger Coach Al Saunders. Saunders knows that the Chargers won’t replace recently retired Dan Fouts with any of the quarterbacks available in Sunday’s NFL draft. He knows that Schroeder knows the offense that the Chargers’ new offensive coordinator, Jerry Rhome, will help install in 1988. Rhome was Schroeder’s quarterback coach in Washington.

“If, in fact, he’s available to be traded, I’d love to have Jay Schroeder here,” Saunders said. “Now, whether that can be worked out within the framework of what we’re willing to do to get him, that’s an entirely different question.”

Ortmayer wouldn’t say what he thought he would have to pay for Schroeder. But he said: “I believe in overpaying if the player’s right for us.”

Ortmayer declined to say whether he thought Schroeder was such a player.