Quite the Development : Pacifica’s Carlson Hopes to Be Backup Ram Quarterback

One of the eight quarterbacks taken ahead of USC’s Rodney Peete in last month’s National Football League draft remembers he couldn’t quite crack a certain newspaper’s high school all-county team back in 1983.

You could look it up.

Jeff Carlson, though, has recovered from the oversight and is looking forward to an exciting future in professional football.

The former Pacifica High School star, you may not remember, was selected in the fourth round by the Rams, who are looking for a long-term, developmental quarterback to work slowly into Jim Everett’s backup spot. They may have found their man in Carlson, a strong-armed left-hander who grew up in the shadows of Rams Park.

For Carlson, getting drafted by the Rams was like never leaving home. He’s staying at his parents’ house in Cypress this week during mini-camp while making a very short commute.

“I live 10 minutes from here, over on Knott and Orangewood,” Carlson said. “So I just leave 10 minutes before I need to be here. It’s right around the corner.”

Carlson will return to Weber State next week in preparation for graduation June 9, when he will receive a degree in broadcasting.

It’s all pretty exciting stuff. Carlson, for one, was always a Rams fan growing up, though he never envisioned a professional football career waiting around the corner.

“I had not one clue,” he said of the Rams drafting him. “I worked out for them over spring break, but didn’t hear anything from them. A couple other teams gave me more positive stuff. I didn’t have any feeling for the Rams whatsoever.”

Somewhere at home, there’s still a bulletin board with Ram memorabilia on it. It used to hang in Carlson’s room.

He remembers as a kid meeting former defensive tackle and present Ram coach Larry Brooks at a punt, pass, and kick competition. He remembers attending a Rams’ game at the Coliseum in the early 1970s, featuring quarterback John Hadl and the Saints’ Archie Manning.

“The Rams were still wearing their blue and white uniforms,” Carlson said.

And yes, he does remember 1983 being a tough year for high school quarterbacks in Orange County. Carlson led the Mariners to the Empire League championship that year and was named the league’s most valuable player. As for all-county honors, he was edged by Fountain Valley’s Brett Stevens, who was named to The Times’ first team. Burt Call of Capistrano Valley made second team.

Interestingly, all three players ended up in Utah--Stevens at Utah State, Call played baseball at Brigham Young, and Carlson attended Weber State.

Actually, Carlson had no real gripes with one newspaper’s opinion.

“In the preseason, I was on the Top 25 in Orange County list,” he remembered. “But I wasn’t in a real throwing offense. Burt Call was throwing the ball a hundred times a game. What can you do? I wasn’t worried about it.” In other words, things turned out pretty well. Carlson become only the second player in Weber State history to throw for more than 5,000 yards in a career, finishing with 6,147 yards and 47 touchdown passes.

Like a lot of other quarterbacks, Carlson still isn’t sure how or why he was drafted ahead of Peete, the USC star who lasted until the sixth round before being selected by the Detroit Lions.

“You don’t know what’s going to happen, and what people see in different people,” he said. “As coaches came through and worked me out, I didn’t know if they saw positive or negative things in me, so I didn’t have any idea. Obviously, teams saw something in him (Peete), because 28 teams passed him over five different times, so they saw something. I feel for him, because of the publicity he had beforehand and his expectations that were let down.”

Carlson thinks his size--6-foot-3, 215 pounds--was a determining factor in going ahead of Peete.

“I would say size and strength,” he said. “And I think I have a lot better arm than he does, and I’m about two, three inches taller than he is. I think those things, plus how many quarterbacks have been hurt the last couple of years? There’s durability. He got knocked out of a couple games. I’ve never been hurt or knocked out for a game or a play or anything. They might have looked at that.”

With Everett entrenched as the Rams’ starter for years to come, the chances of Carlson being injured--or playing for that matter--appear slim. But he says he understands the role of a “developmental quarterback,” especially since he’s coming here from a Division 1-AA college program.

“That’s what I need,” he said. “Coming out of a small school and playing against the caliber of competition that’s out here now, it’s the best situation for me--to learn from the guys that have been doing it. I took it as totally positive.”

And so what if the quarterback here is a star and only 26 years old?

“I’ve thought about that,” Carlson said. “And the way I look at it, if I just play the best I can play, something good will happen. I can’t say what’s going to happen with Jim. He’s only 26 and he’s a heck of a quarterback, but if I play the best I can, I can back him up or whatever. If I do well here, and they decide they need to keep (Mark) Herrmann or whatever, then something good will happen down the road. Things I can’t control, I don’t have to worry about them.”