Camp Next in Chargers’ Learning Process
They call it a mini-camp when actually it’s a maxi-fraud. It’s a dress rehearsal without dresses. The NFL doesn’t even allow its players to wear shoulder pads in mini-camps.
And it starts Monday for the Chargers at their San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium practice facility. It will last five days.
It’s a fraud because most of the players present will have been working out on the same practice field before the mini-camp and will continue to work out on the same practice field when the mini-camp ends.
More important than anything that happens on the field in five days will be the results of physicals given to the 94 players expected to take part.
Nevertheless, there are questions begging. And even if Dan Henning, the new coach, has figured out the answers in private, he will finally be asked about them publicly this week. Fact is, he has already started answering some of them.
Questions such as:
How does rookie Billy Joe Tolliver’s arm strength look?
“He has the type of arm we drafted him for,” Henning says. Henning is more concerned with Tolliver’s weight. The Chargers drafted him at 217 pounds. Right now, he’s about 222. That’s a lot for a quarterback who’s only 6 feet tall. “I don’t give a . . . what he weighs,” Henning says. “But I don’t want it to be fat.” Henning says Tolliver must reduce his body fat content by three percentage points. “Which means,” he says, “somewhere along the line he’s got to transfer about seven or eight pounds of fat into muscle or just flat out lose seven or eight pounds.”
Where will No. 1 rookie Burt Grossman line up?
Probably at right defensive end, according to Gunther Cunningham, the defensive line coach. Cunningham has said Leslie O’Neal will play outside of Grossman. But he hasn’t made it clear in what kind of alignment. Tackle Joe Phillips is unsigned and making noises about how much more money the Chargers will have to pay him if they switch him permanently to the thankless position of nose tackle.
What kind of practices will Henning run?
His predecessor, Al Saunders, delegated most of the authority during practices and did very little hands-on coaching. Saunders also had this habit, impossible to ignore, of becoming more animated and more hands-on every time owner Alex Spanos showed up to watch practice. It’s hard to imagine Henning keeping his hands off the wide-open quarterback situation no matter who’s looking on, even though he has hired, in Ted Tollner, one of the best quarterbacks coaches in football.
How tough will Henning’s classroom be?
The mini-camp meetings will be more difficult than the workouts. By far. The Chargers have to get their roster down to 80 players by June 1. The marginal players who are quick in the classroom will have a big advantage over those who are not. “The mental strain we will put them through during the five-day period will be even greater than it would be starting out in training camp,” Henning says.
How will Henning treat the rookies?
The same as he will in training camp--as raw recruits. “When in doubt, the veteran gets the nod,” Henning says. “We pick these rookies for potential. But we play people for production. There are a number of things that a rookie has to go through that you don’t ever know until you get there. Moving into a strange town, being out of college for the first time in their life. Learning how to deal with the media and the free time they’ll have when they’re not in class. And going through a 16-game schedule. All the vets have been through that.”
Charger Notes
Explaining why he advised unsigned running back Gary Anderson not to participate in mini-camp drills, agent Peter Johnson cited the case of former linebacker Ron Faurot. Johnson said Faurot suffered a career-ending knee injury while working out for the Chargers in 1985. Johnson said Faurot was unsigned at the time. The Chargers contend Faurot was signed in 1985 before he hurt his knee. The record shows they placed him on injured reserve Nov. 7, 1985, before eventually releasing him May 30, 1986. Faurot signed with the Colts April 22, 1987, and was waived three weeks later. If, as Johnson says, the injury was career-ending, why did the Colts sign Faurot in 1987 when he would have had to pass their physical before signing? . . . The Chargers are tentatively scheduled to begin training camp for veterans July 29 at UC San Diego. They also are tentatively set to scrimmage the Cowboys Aug. 2-4 in Thousand Oaks. The Cowboys are owned by Arkansas millionaire Jerry Jones, who dismissed longtime personnel boss Gil Brandt the other day without the courtesy of a handshake. “That’s why those scrimmage dates are tentative,” Charger Coach Dan Henning said, dryly.