PRO FOOTBALL REPORT WEEKDAY UPDATE : CHARGERS : Early Does a Slow Burn Over Talk He Lost a Step

Receiver Quinn Early, who lost his starting position to Walter Wilson after the Chargers’ season-opening loss to Dallas, would like everybody to know that he’s not a slowpoke.

There has been concern that he doesn’t have the speed to do the job ever since he came back from last season’s knee injury, which kept him out of 10 games.

“That’s a bunch of bull,” he said. “I’m getting a little tired of hearing that. If you want to line up a bunch of guys, we can run. My first year, I was considered a speed guy. Since I hurt my knee, all of a sudden people think I’m slow. I don’t know where it comes from.”

In last Sunday’s 17-7 loss to Houston, Early caught two passes for 36 yards. With Nate Lewis out with a thigh injury, Coach Dan Henning said Early will be the first receiver off the bench Sunday against the Steelers.

“I just have to take the role they give me and play like I know I can,” Early said. “I know what I’m doing. I have confidence in my abilities. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be worth that much.”

Quarterbacking is becoming a little limiting for Billy Joe Tolliver. He’d like to broaden his scope.

On his list of interests:

1. Punting.

2. Kicking field goals.

3. Busting the wedge on the kickoff coverage team.

Busting the wedge? Come on, Billy Joe, the Chargers aren’t going to use their starting quarterback as a wedge buster.

“Well, I know that,” he said. “That’s why I want to be it, ‘cause I don’t have to worry about them throwing me out there.”

He may not be ready to displace John Kidd, but Tolliver is fourth on the depth chart behind kicker John Carney and linebacker Gary Plummer.

“I was all-district, all-county and all-area in high school,” he said. “Larry (Pasquale, special teams coach) is an exceptional coach, but he’s not seeing the real talent in me.”

Field goals?

“I was making 35-yarders the day before yesterday,” he said. “I’d have to say my cutoff is about 41 or 42.”

He paused and then shouted across the locker room. “Hey, Kidd, what’s my range? About 41 or 42?”

“Yeah,” Kidd shouted back. “Forty-one, 42, 20. Somewhere in there.”

The Steelers are 1-3 and have yet to score an offensive touchdown, but Charger linebacker Steve Hendrickson warns they aren’t that bad. Hendrickson played for the 49ers last season, and he says the 49ers were glad they wound up facing the Broncos rather than the Steelers in the Super Bowl.

“Teams like Pittsburgh kind of scare you because you never know what to expect,” he said. “I remember watching them last year and thinking ‘I hope the Broncos beat them,’ because they were by far a better team than the Broncos.”

Former Steeler and Charger quarterback Mark Malone is working in Pittsburgh as host of WPXI’s Steelers ’90 half-hour pregame show. . . . Tolliver was told after practice Friday that he and his wife, Sheila Tolliver, are expecting a baby June 9. The couple has a 2-year-old son, Austin. . . . Henning’s reaction to the $30,000 fine levied against Cincinnati Coach Sam Wyche for barring a female reporter from the locker room: “No comment.”