A Quartet of Survivors Battle for Fouts’ Job as Charger Quarterback

The four players assembled at the San Diego Chargers training camp to compete for the quarterback’s job once owned by Dan Fouts are, above all, survivors.

The group is a gritty collection: two castoffs, a fifth-year pro who has yet to throw a pass in a regular season game and a second-year player whose lack of experience virtually makes him a rookie.

All of them have managed to keep their careers flickering to take a stab at succeeding Fouts, the six-time all-pro who retired earlier this year after directing a record-setting San Diego offense for 15 years.

“When you lose one of the finest quarterbacks to ever play the game, it leaves a terrific gap,” Chargers Coach Al Saunders said. “You don’t replace a Dan Fouts, you follow him. But his skills and the great things he did in this organization are past. You have to go on.”

Mark Malone, who withstood nearly two years of boos and catcalls in Pittsburgh, is considered the leading candidate for the job.

But Malone, acquired in April for an eighth-round choice and a conditional pick, is being challenged by free agent Babe Laufenberg.

Mark Vlasic, the Chargers’ fourth-round pick in 1987, also has had a good training camp after a lackluster performance during the spring mini-camp. He is given the edge over veteran free agent Steve Fuller for the third quarterback slot on the roster.

“The quarterback for us now, this year, has to be a play-maker guy,” Saunders said. “We aren’t good enough overall from a personnel standpoint to have a classic dropback passer, to be able to protect him.

“You’ve got to have a guy who, if the pocket breaks down, he’s able to get out of there and run around, throw the ball up the field or flush from the pocket on a third-and-seven and get the first down.”

All four candidates have the ability to scramble, with Fuller and Vlasic considered the better pure passers and Malone and Laufenberg given the edge in athletic ability, Saunders said.

Fuller, who like Malone is in his eighth year, was a sometime starter in 4 1/2 years with the Kansas City Chiefs and played behind Jim McMahon in Chicago through 1986. He was out of football last year.

While the four compete among themselves, they must also deal with the legacy of Fouts, who retired as the second-most prolific passer in NFL history.

“I’m sure for whoever plays here, people are going to say, ‘Dan Fouts would have completed that pass,’ or ‘Fouts would have brought them back,”’ Laufenberg said, who has turned heads before with his exhibition play but has yet to complete a pass in the regular season.

“I think that’s something you can’t let bother you,” Laufenberg said. “There’s going to be a lot of new people at all positions so it’s not something where the only piece of the puzzle that’s missing, as opposed to last year, is the quarterback.”

The Chargers also are changing their offensive scheme to better accommodate the styles of the quarterbacks. Jerry Rhome, the former Redskins quarterback coach hired as San Diego’s offensive coordinator after Washington’s Super Bowl victory, is installing a scheme that accents the run to set up the passing game.

“I think that’s the way to go,” Rhome said. “You’ve got to be able to run the ball in the NFL to be successful.”

Veteran tight end Kellen Winslow, who represents one of the last links to the Chargers glory days, said team may go through an identity crisis for a while.

“This team, because of the importance of the quarterback position, will go through some changes as far as identity,” he said. “If it was under the old system, I think it would be very difficult. But the fact that we’ve got a new system, it’s like everybody is starting over fresh, so I don’t think the transition is going to be that major.”

Malone and Laufenberg hold the key to that transition with Vlasic, who played sparingly as a rookie, and Fuller as the wild cards.

“I really believe honestly that I can play here, that I can start here,” said Malone, ranked last among starting NFL quarterbacks in 1987.

“It was never a question back there (in Pittsburgh) as to my capability of playing,” Malone added. “It got to be such a bad situation with the fans there that they felt it was unfair for me. And I also felt, as well as they did, it was unfair for my teammates.”

Malone, a native of the San Diego area, said joining a team that wants him has made a big difference.

“It’s been a refreshing change, there’s no doubt” Malone said. “And I think that has a lot to do with how you perform and how you go out on the field every day and do your job.”

Saunders said the hope that Malone would benefit by the change of scenery was precisely why the Chargers traded for him.

“I don’t know anybody who could have performed well in the environment he was in in Pittsburgh,” Saunders said. “That had to be something very taxing to him. He certainly has not shown any residual effects of that here.”

Laufenberg, meanwhile, finally appears to have a chance to play a significant role in San Diego after being a perennial reserve in Washington (1983-85) and New Orleans (1986). He also had tryouts in 1985 with San Diego and Kansas City last year, but failed to make the final cut.

Even if he loses out on the starting job, Laufenberg could latch onto the No. 2 job, left vacant with the trade earlier this year of Mark Herrmann to Indianapolis.

But right now, he’s got his eye on the top job.

“I’m hoping that this might be the spot for me,” he said. “Obviously, for a guy like me, I don’t think you can get a better situation in the sense that the guy who was No. 1 last year is gone and the guy who was No. 2 last year is gone. That’s rare.”

He said that he has learned plenty while sitting on the bench, but that what he wants most is to put that knowledge to work.

“I think the thing that has really kept me going is the fact that I haven’t played,” Laufenberg said. “I think I have the capabilities but obviously you have to have a showcase for them.”

“Sure, I’ve been frustrated by not having played. I see guys around the league and there’s just no doubt in my mind I’m better than some of those people. But they’re playing and I’m not. I think in my situation, I really just need to get in and play.”