Chargers Are (No.) 1 Draft Pick Short of a Load

The news as the Chargers opened training camp Friday was that the team has agreed to terms with all of its 17 draft choices but one.

But that one is the No. 1, and that is the biggest news.

Inside linebacker Junior Seau remains unsigned, and his absence was noted Friday night when the rest of the team’s rookies and selected veterans reported for the start of six weeks of training camp at UC San Diego.

There is still time to reach an agreement before the players hold their first practice Sunday afternoon, but no one is counting on that. Not the Chargers, not Seau’s agent.

“Nothing is going to happen where we are going to get together by Sunday,” Charger General Manager Bobby Beathard said.

The parties remain $900,000 a year apart in their contract proposals and have not exchanged offers in a week, Beathard said. He said he tried but failed Friday to reach Seau’s agent, Steve Feldman of Newport Beach.

Feldman said Thursday the Chargers have offered Seau, the fifth player taken in the draft, a five-year deal that averages $700,000 a year.

Feldman said he is insisting on a deal at least as lucrative as the one Tampa Bay gave linebacker Keith McCants, the No. 4 player in the draft. Feldman said that five-year deal averages about $1.2 million per year.

“If they didn’t want to pay fifth-player money, then they shouldn’t have drafted fifth,” Feldman said. “They shouldn’t have taken him.”

If that is the price, Beathard said, he is not biting, in part because he said he is not sure reports of McCants’ contract are accurate.

“If that is what it takes, then we do have a problem,” Beathard said. “(Feldman) has told me all along that it will take more than McCants.”

But while the Chargers and Seau continue to have their differences, five other draft choices did come to terms, the team announced Friday. Chief among these was quarterback John Friesz from Idaho.

Friesz, 6-foot-4 and 209 pounds, was the first player taken in the sixth round. He will compete against veterans David Archer and Mark Vlasic to back up starter Billy Joe Tolliver.

Also agreeing to terms were cornerbacks David Pool from Carson-Newman and Keith Collins from Appalachian State and offensive linemen Jeff Novak from Southwest Texas State and Joe Staysniak from Ohio State.

Pool, 5-9 and 188, was the third of three Charger picks in the sixth round and the 145th player taken overall. His practice time in minicamp in May was limited after he pulled a muscle during sprint timing.

Collins, 5-11 and 183, was the last of four Charger picks in the seventh round and the 193rd player selected.

Novak, 6-5 and 279, was the first Charger pick in the seventh round and the 172nd player taken.

Staysniak, 6-4 1/2 and 291, was the second Charger selection in the seventh round and 185th player picked.

No terms of the agreements were released by the Chargers.

Charger Notes

The Chargers made the first cut of training camp even before it began, telling kicker Barry Belli that he need not report by the Friday deadline. Belli, a free agent from Fresno State, was one of four kickers on the roster. That leaves John Carney, a Plan B free agent from Tampa Bay, Thomas Whelihan, a free agent from Missouri and Fuad Reveiz, a free agent who was with the Miami Dolphins for four seasons, to compete for the job held last by Chris Bahr, who was cut in the off-season. To stay under the NFL limit of 80 signed players, the Chargers will have to make more cuts once draft choices officially sign contracts. If all the players who have agreed to terms sign, the Chargers will have 82 players. That means they will have to cut two players before the first practice.

The Chargers said 63 players had checked in by dinner Friday and that three more were expected before today. . . . In addition to first-round pick Junior Seau, the Chargers have nine veterans who have not agreed to a contract: outside linebacker David Brandon, cornerback Gill Byrd, inside linebacker Cedric Figaro, free safety Vencie Glenn, defensive end George Hinkle, linebacker Leslie O’Neal, offensive guard David Richards, cornerback Sammy Seale and offensive tackle Broderick Thompson. Veterans are not required to report until Friday.