Chargers Lose Pick to Raiders
Three free-agent players arrived and kicker Chris Bahr left Wednesday as the Chargers continued to rebuild under new General Manager Bobby Beathard, but the major news was the future player the Chargers will never get.
The club has been informed by the NFL office that it owes the Raiders a fourth-round draft choice as part of a complicated 1988 trade that sent offensive tackle Jim Lachey to the Raiders and brought the Chargers offensive tackle John Clay and running back Napoleon McCallum.
The announcement is the latest bad twist for the Chargers in a trade that is one of the blackest marks on the three-year tenure of Beathard’s predecessor, Steve Ortmayer.
Clay’s career as a Charger was ended by a neck injury early in the 1988 season. McCallum has never played a down for the Chargers and is on the team’s military/reserve list while serving as a Naval recruiting officer in San Diego.
The Chargers had sent a 1989 third- and a 1990 fourth-round choice to the Raiders when they acquired McCallum in October 1988. Those choices had been traded to the Chargers by the Raiders as part of the first half of the deal that sent Lachey to the Raiders and Clay to the Chargers in July 1988. Lachey was later traded by the Raiders to Washington for quarterback Jay Schroeder.
Now the league has informed Beathard the deal also included a provision that the Chargers would send their 1990 fourth-round pick to the Raiders if McCallum was with the team in 1989. The Chargers were told that although McCallum did not play in the regular season he reported for training camp and that was all that was required.
The loss of the fourth-round pick means the Chargers have 12 selections in the April 22-23 draft but only three in the first five rounds. The Chargers have the fifth pick of the first round and two choices in the third round, theirs and that of Indianapolis. The Indianapolis selection was acquired in the trade that sent linebacker Chip Banks to the Colts.
That pick was upgraded from a fourth-round choice when the Colts included Banks on their 37-man protected list in the Plan B free-agent program.
The Chargers also announced their first signing of a Plan B player and the decision to not invite one of their own back. It could signal the start of a busy final 5 1/2 weeks before the plan’s April 1 signing deadline.
Bruce Plummer, a 6-foot-1, 203-pound safety from Indianapolis, signed a two-year contract, said his agent, Neil Allen.
Allen said the contract was for more than $600,000 and included a “high five-figure” signing bonus.
Plummer, 25, came to the Colts from Miami last season in the first year of the Plan B program. He was used primarily on special teams by the Colts and played in all 16 games, starting two. He joined the NFL out of Mississippi State in 1986 as a ninth-round draft pick by Denver. He played in 22 games for the Broncos before being claimed on waviers by Miami late in the 1988 season.
The Chargers also said that Bahr would not return as their kicker. Bahr, 37, who was signed by the Chargers from the Raiders in last year’s Plan B program, had been one of 17 players left unprotected by the team.
Bahr made 17 of 25 field goal attempts, including a 45-yarder on the final play to defeat Denver, 19-16, in the season finale. The decision leaves the Chargers without a kicker on their roster.
The Chargers also announced the signing of free agent cornerbacks Joe Fuller and Tim Jackson. Both were on developmental squads last season and were not part of the Plan B program.
Fuller, 25, spent the first five weeks of last season on the Minnesota developmental squad before he was dropped because of a back injury. He was signed by the Vikings as a free agent in 1989 after three seasons (1986-88) with Saskatchewan of the Canadian Football League. Fuller, 5-11, 180, played his college football at Northern Iowa.
Jackson, 24, was a 1989 ninth-round draft pick by Dallas from Nebraska. Jackson, 5-11, 192, spent four weeks on the Dallas developmental squad before he was released and signed by Washington for its developmental squad for the final month of the season.
Charger Notes
The Chargers have an interest in several more Plan B players, according to the players’ agents. Among those are Chicago running back Thomas Sanders, Washington running back Joe Mickles, Washington offensive guard Ralph Tamm and Miami offensive guard Tom Toth. . . . Charger players left unprotected in Plan B that have drawn the attention of other teams, according to their agents, include quarterback David Archer (New Orleans and San Francisco), linebacker Joe Campbell (Chicago, Cleveland, Kansas City, the Raiders and Seattle) and offensive tackle Brett Miller (New York Jets).