Vlasic Is Playing Catch-Up : Charger Quarterback Trying to Win Back No. 1 Spot
Last November Mark Vlasic was the Chargers’ quarterback of the future. Then he started two games, won them both, and injured his knee. Now he isn’t even the quarterback of the immediate past.
Vlasic won his first two NFL starts last year in Weeks 11 and 12 before the knee injury ended his season. He is back practicing during this week’s mini-camp. But his mobility is limited and there is no guarantee the left knee will be completely healed by the time training camp begins in late July.
Mark Malone replaced him after the injury and won his last two starts, making him the most recent quarterback of record and the present incumbent. Meanwhile, the Chargers drafted strong-armed Billy Joe Tolliver from Texas Tech in the second round of last month’s draft.
Now Tolliver is the so-called “quarterback of the future” and that, too, could change in early July if the Chargers manage to win the rights to Washington State quarterback Timm Rosenbach in the lottery that precedes the supplemental draft.
Vlasic is painfully aware of every bit of this. “I’m going to be a little bit behind what everybody else is doing,” he says.
And it’s not just a matter of being slower on his dropback time. The knee also affects the quickness afoot he needs, for example, on running plays to fake one handoff and spin around in time to get the ball to another back.
Vlasic worked out Tuesday morning but left early in the afternoon practice due to soreness in the knee. The Chargers will probably hold him out of the bulk of physical testing they have scheduled for this morning.
“I still feel, getting back to full strength, that I can get back in there and be the starter,” Vlasic said. “But the other guys are definitely looking good and you can’t close your eyes to that.”
In his two starts last year, Vlasic completed 25 of 52 passes for 270 yards with two interceptions and one touchdown.
“I didn’t do anything great in those two games,” Vlasic says. “But I made some things happen and we came out with wins and that’s the bottom line. I’ve got a long way to go. But I would hope that it became evident that if I’m in there, I can get the job done.”
Charger Coach Dan Henning continues to say Malone would be the starter if the season started tomorrow. But in the next breath, he almost always points out that the season doesn’t start until September.
Meanwhile all four quarterbacks in mini-camp--Malone, Vlasic, David Archer and Tolliver--are sharing the same number of snaps during practices. Very little of the playbook is being used.
“Once we get into it where there’s a great deal going on, I think they’ll separate themselves as far as how we would use them,” Henning said. “And once we start to do that, then we will give whoever we feel is ahead of the game at that time more of the work.”
Henning said he would take no more than four quarterbacks into training camp in July.
Charger defensive end Leslie O’Neal is working out inside the weight room with the other injured Chargers even though he recovered enough from his 1986 knee injury to be playing at the end of last year.
O’Neal said he figures the Chargers will play more four-man line than they did last year with the addition of first-round rookie Burt Grossman, a defensive lineman from Pitt. Last year they played more three-man line.
Two late-round draft choices have caught Henning’s attention for decidedly different reasons. They are Dana Brinson, the Chargers’ eighth-round pick from Nebraska, and Marion Butts, a seventh-rounder from Florida State.
Brinson, a wide receiver-kick returner, didn’t show up for practice until Tuesday, the second day of mini-camp. According to Henning, Brinson missed his plane and was late arriving.
But, Henning said, “People said he wasn’t nifty, that he was a ‘straight-line’ guy. I don’t see that.”
Butts is a running back whom the Chargers drafted primarily for his blocking ability and special-teams enthusiasm. “Butts is not what I expected completely,” Henning said. “Without being negative, I thought he would be more rotund. But he’s built more like a runner than a blocker. Although he is 246 pounds.”
Charger Notes
Wide receiver Quinn Early pulled a muscle in his back and had to leave the afternoon practice early Tuesday. . . . The Chargers’ second Family Day starts at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium at noon Saturday. The Chargers will show a preview of the 1989 season on the DiamondVision board at 1:30 p.m. The players will also work out at 2 p.m. and be available for autographs afterward, starting approximately at 3 p.m.