Charger Notebook : Saunders Is Optimistic Smith Can Play Sunday

The Chargers (2-2) are increasingly optimistic about the availability of outside linebacker Billy Ray Smith for Sunday’s home game against Denver (1-3).

Smith hasn’t played since the first game of the season because of a slow-healing calf injury. But he practiced more Thursday than he did Wednesday. And, Coach Al Saunders said, “It looks like he may very well be ready to go. That would be a big boost for us.”

The Broncos beat the Chargers, 34-3, Sept. 11 in Denver.

Saunders said the Chargers will probably upgrade Smith from “questionable” to “probable” on the injury report today.

Steve Ortmayer, the Chargers’ director of football operations, said the team has reached an agreement with tight end Kellen Winslow and his agent on the suspension Winslow disputed before the first game. “It’ll be official in a day or two,” Ortmayer said. “It’s just a matter of paper work.”

The dispute has centered around Winslow’s contentions that he is no longer able to play football and that the Chargers still owe him his 1988 guaranteed salary of $795,000.

Ortmayer says it is not the Chargers but holdout outside linebacker Chip Banks and Los Angeles-based agent Harold Daniels who have insisted that a trade to another team is out of the question. The NFL trade deadline is Oct. 11.

Ortmayer says the idea of moving Banks to another team this year has come up “in a roundabout way” in discussions with Daniels. But, Ortmayer says, “Daniels has indicated that Chip’s problem is not with the Chargers, it’s with the league.” In other words, Banks is unhappy with the NFL’s free agency structure.

Ortmayer says it’s more likely the Chargers will wait until next year before making a decision on whether Banks will be playing elsewhere in the future.

Charger Notes

Canadian track star Ben Johnson as a Charger wide receiver? Steve Ortmayer says Johnson, who this week was stripped of his gold medal in the Olympic 100 meters because of steroid use, might have “possibilities in the NFL.” And, says the Chargers’ director of football operations, he has talked to track and field people about Johnson. “He appears to have the size,” Ortmayer says. “But I think there are other teams in the league that have a more immediate need for a wide receiver than us.” . . . The Chargers are urging fans to show up early for Sunday’s game against the Broncos if they want to find parking. The lot at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium has 18,500 spaces, but the Chargers-Broncos game is expected to draw more than 55,000 fans. San Diego Transit bus information is available by dialing 233-3004.