Possibilities Spin Heads of Chargers : Team Is Maintaining an Open-Door Policy--Unless the Door Closes

By most accounts, Steve Ortmayer is a shrewd appraiser of talent, a sound negotiator and an able front-office body. So we should not laugh at what he said the other day.

To be sure, there was an undeniable underpinning of truth late last week in the point the Charger director of football operations was making about the team’s quarterback prospects vis-a-vis today’s NFL draft.

But the words were enough to make Yogi Berra blush.

“We’re not going to close the doors on a veteran quarterback until the doors are closed,” Ortmayer said. “And the doors would probably be closed with the acquisition of another veteran quarterback.”

Right.

So it’s time for the Chargers to put up the requisite number of draft picks or players or a combination of both to obtain the quarterback they insist they must have. Or it is time for them to shut up.

The pickin’ and grinnin’ starts at 9 a.m. PDT. This is the day beggars can be choosers. The Chargers own the 15th selection in the first round.

They don’t possess a No. 2, having surrendered that to the Rams last year in the rueful trade that brought running back Barry Redden.

Most people figure that the NFL’s 28 teams will complete four rounds today and finish the other eight Monday. The Chargers have one pick in the third round, two in the fourth, one each in the fifth and sixth, none in the seventh or eighth, one in the ninth, none in the 10th, two in the 11th and one in the 12th.

If they don’t make any deals, the Chargers probably will select a wide receiver--very possibly Tennessee wide receiver Anthony Miller--with their first pick.

“Anthony would love that,” said Bruce Allen, Miller’s Phoenix-based agent and the son of George Allen, the former Ram coach.

Miller, a former sprinter, attended San Diego State on a track scholarship briefly in 1984 before he transferred to Pasadena City College so he could play football in 1985. He attended Pasadena’s Muir High School but played only one year of football there.

Allen says the New Orleans Saints covet Miller more than the three wide receivers generally rated ahead of him--Notre Dame’s Tim Brown, the Heisman Trophy winner, South Carolina’s Sterling Sharpe and Miami’s Michael Irvin.

But that may just be agent talk. Allen says he hears that the Saints might trade up from the 25th pick of the first round to get Miller. But sources in New Orleans say there’s no way Saint General Manager Jim Finks would pick Miller ahead of any of the other three top wide receivers.

All Ortmayer will say is that he likes Miller very much and that, yes, Miller is in a group of several players the Chargers covet and believe might be available with the 15th pick. Others are: Northwestern (La.) State running back John Stephens, Michigan offensive tackle John Elliott, UCLA running back Gaston Green, Stanford fullback Brad Muster, Indiana offensive tackle Eric Moore, Michigan State running back Lorenzo White and Arizona State wide receiver Aaron Cox.

There are no quarterbacks rated high enough to go in the first round. And there aren’t any rated high enough to provide the Chargers with instant help. Late Friday, reports circulated that Chicago quarterback Jim McMahon would become a Raider by the end of today.

Asked to confirm that the Chargers were not looking to bid for McMahon, Ortmayer nodded affirmatively but qualified the confirmation by saying, “as we speak.” It’s hard to imagine McMahon coming to the Chargers for two reasons: One, the price tag would be prohibitive--probably at least two No. 1 picks; second, McMahon’s history of injuries isn’t worth the risk.

Last year, the Chargers traded the fifth and 32nd picks to Cleveland in exchange for linebacker Chip Banks and the 24th and 49th picks. That move was an unqualified success. Banks and Billy Ray Smith arguably give the Chargers the best pair of outside linebackers in football.

But the Chargers then spent the 24th pick on Texas A&M; tight end Rod Bernstine. That move was enigmatic. Bernstine may still turn into a productive player. But the Chargers already had Kellen Winslow, Pete Holohan and Eric Sievers at that position.

“We will not take the tight end with our first pick this year,” Ortmayer promises. But if Oklahoma’s Keith Jackson, the best tight end available, is still on the board when the Chargers’ time comes, they could turn it to their advantage.

For instance, the Bears haven’t had a first-rate tight end since their coach, Mike Ditka, played there in the ‘60s. The Bears own the 24th and 28th picks in the first round. They could trade up with the Chargers to get Jackson. And depending upon how much the Bears want him, the Chargers might even be able to pry both the Bears’ first-round picks for Jackson.

Since most experts pinpoint the best values in this year’s draft in the 20 through 60 area, the Chargers--whose needs are multifold--probably would be better off picking 24th and 28th than just 15th.

Ortmayer doesn’t rule out the possibility of the Chargers trading up for a player, either. That option proved wildly successful two years ago when they moved from 14th to eighth in the first round to get Oklahoma State defensive end Leslie O’Neal.

But Ortmayer admits his team doesn’t have the “firepower” in terms of stockpiled draft choices to compete with a team such as the Raiders. The Raiders own the sixth and ninth picks in the first round. Because of that, Ortmayer says, if the Raiders and the Chargers got into a bidding war for the same player, “they could blow us away.”

That firepower also puts the Raiders in a better position to outbid the Chargers for Washington Redskin quarterback Jay Schroeder if they decide they want him. The Chargers have said all along they are interested in Schroeder, who would be an instant starter. But they haven’t publicly admitted to making the Redskins an offer.

“We’ve never dealt from a defensive position with Washington at all,” Ortmayer says. “And we won’t.”

Quarterback. Wide receiver. Offensive line. Running back. Cornerback. Inside linebacker. Kicker. Those are the Chargers’ overall needs. And probably in that order.

Speaking of defense, for months the Chargers have insisted that this is an offensive draft, and they will pick to upgrade an offense that finished 21st in the league last year. All of a sudden, that may be changing.

“There may be some defensive players working their way down toward us,” Ortmayer said late last week. Oklahoma cornerback Rickey Dixon, he said, might be one of them. Another possibility is Miami safety Bennie Blades. But most experts still figure Dixon and Blades will go in the top six to eight picks of the first round.

Ortmayer also said there are a “bunch” of veteran wide receivers being shopped around the league by their current teams.

So what’s going to happen?

Hard to know.

“I really think you should write as gospel that our (top) pick is probably coming from the wide receiver, running back, (offensive) tackle category,” Ortmayer said. “I think you can almost hang your hat on that.”

Then, in the next breath, he asked, “Has anybody ever traded down (in the first round) and then traded back up?”

Yogi never would have said that.