Chargers Light Fires at Camp Optimism : Football: As players report for training, General Manager Bobby Beathard is convinced last season’s 6-10 record was not indicative of the team’s talent.
Bad omen: The Chargers’ 1991 pocket schedules have a handsome picture of Marion Butts on the cover.
So who did you expect? Dan Henning? Billy Joe Tolliver? Galand Thaxton? Who?
Welcome to training camp, and this year’s UC San Diego-based exercise in preparing the Chargers for anything other than a 6-10 finish.
“I wouldn’t be real happy with 6-10 this year,” Henning said. “But I’m not going to make any predictions. I just think we have a better football team than the first two I had here.”
The Chargers went 6-10 in 1988 under Al Saunders, and then 6-10 again 1989 and 1990 under Henning.
“Our record didn’t indicate it,” General Manager Bobby Beathard said, “But I looked at last year’s team as being better than the year before. And now we have a younger and faster team, a team that is coming together, and a team that should play better as a group.
“The way the season ended was a disappointment, but I think the players on this team felt they were better than how they ended up. At least, I hope that’s how they feel.”
The Chargers finished 1990 in retreat. They lost their final three games and five of their last six. They have 36 defeats in their last 54 games since going 8-1 to open the 1987 season.
The turnaround solution, however, is simple: find a quarterback who doesn’t throw the ball to the other team in the fourth quarter, and find a defense that doesn’t swoon late.
The Chargers have lost 14 games by seven or fewer points in Henning’s first two years on the job. Last season the Chargers went 0-5 in such close games, and in four of those losses, they had the lead entering the fourth quarter.
“Two or three years ago you didn’t have a team that was capable of getting in that position to win,” Henning said. “We are closer, and now we’ve got to make the jump over. We didn’t do it last year, but that’s the challenge our players have.”
QUARTERBACK
The Billy Joe Tolliver fan club will conduct its next meeting in a phone booth outside of San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.
“People I talk to around the league can’t believe the way Tolliver’s being hounded,” Henning said. “He’s got better stats after 20 games than Dallas’ Troy Aikman, and they consider Aikman a rising star down there.”
Tolliver has compiled an 8-11 mark as a starter. He completed 52.7% of his passes last season and dedicated his off-season to sharpening his aim.
Unless he’s swallowed by an earthquake or shanghaied on Alex Spanos’ orders, he opens the season as the team’s starting quarterback. And if he gets any cooperation from his receivers, don’t be surprised if they have to find a larger meeting room for his fan club.
John Friesz gets a suntan and a place on the bench, and Bob Gagliano works his way into Henning’s plans as Tolliver’s backup. Henning is in no mood to play nursemaid to both Tolliver and Friesz. If Friesz draws playing time this season, it will be under a new head coach.
RUNNING BACK
Butts doesn’t fumble, but he hired an agent who dropped the ball in failing to get Beathard’s signature on this “promise” for a renegotiated contract.
His threat to sit out the season sounds like something Burt Grossman would say just before he takes the field. Butts will play and will continue to soften up defenses for the likes of Rod Bernstine and Ronnie Harmon.
Henning says rookie Eric Bieniemy already has proven to be an outstanding special teams performer. Twelfth-round pick Chris Samuels has also caught the fancy of a rushing-keen Henning. If he can’t make the team, Chargers will find way to hide him for developmental purposes.
The Chargers spent part of their summer vacation fooling around with a two-back attack. How intriguing. You put Butts and Harmon in the same backfield, and does it matter who is throwing the football?
RECEIVER
Anthony Miller has had to flag down passes thrown by Mark Malone, David Archer, Babe Laufenberg, Jim McMahon, Mark Vlasic, Tolliver and Friesz. He’s ready to catch Phil Niekro if the knuckleballer considers a comeback.
Miller caught 63 passes, and four other wide receivers combined for 39 catches. And Miller didn’t have a great or consistent season.
Nate Lewis has chance to entrench himself as a starter, and Walter Wilson fights to keep a trio of rookie receivers from taking his spot on the roster. Kitrick Taylor makes it as special teams employee.
Derrick Walker is a lock at tight end, and steady Craig McEwen dominates at H-back. Special teams whiz Steve Hendrickson makes permanent switch from linebacker to blocking back in goal-line situations. So where does that leave Arthur Cox? In the chow line.
OFFENSIVE LINE
Is it a coincidence that the Chargers’ 6-10 slide started at the same time that Jim Lachey left?
Harry Swayne is latest wonder child to audition at left tackle, and he will compete against Leo Goeas. Tyson versus Holyfield it is not.
Butts and Bernstine gained most of their yards running right--right behind David Richards and Broderick Thompson. Courtney Hall returns to center, and Henning said he has a surprise choice to start at left guard: Mike Zandofsky. Smelling salts, please, for Mike Zandofsky.
“He’s probably our best pass protector,” Henning said.
Beathard spent next year’s No. 1 pick to draft guard Eric Moten in Round 2, so Moten has better chance of sticking with team than Henning. Veteran Mark May looks good as an insurance policy against injury on the right side of the line, and the 10th-round draft pick, center Mike Heldt, gets the nod to take Frank Cornish’s roster spot.
DEFENSIVE LINE
Lee Williams wants more money, Burt Grossman more playing time and Joe Phillips more respect. Throw in George Thornton, the team’s second-round pick, and it will be sack-happy business as usual.
The last-minute loss of Tony Savage to knee surgery puts added emphasis on Phillips’ successful return from a serious injury suffered in a beating outside a Mission Beach restaurant last season. Mitchell Benson adds beef up front, and George Hinkle goes the way of the eclipse: here for a moment, and then long gone.
LINEBACKER
Chargers will continue to do their best to keep Junior Seau from becoming one of the most dominant defenders in the league by making him play inside linebacker. Ultimately, however, they will fail.
Leslie O’Neal is best player on the team, just like he says. Billy Ray Smith is getting old, yeah, old like Nolan Ryan. Gary Plummer will take on all-comers once again at inside linebacker and once again will make them special teamers and backup linebackers.
Henry Rolling was bargain acquisition of 1990, and Thaxton makes a bid to become the surprise find of 1991.
SECONDARY
The Chargers have asked the opposition to refrain from throwing the ball this season in the interests of fair play. The secondary lines up today like kindergartners coming together for first day of school. Show-and-tell won’t be pretty.
First-round pick Stanley Richard starts at free safety because nobody else can. Starting cornerback Sam Seale is weeks away from recovering from shoulder surgery, and his backup, Donald Frank, is also weeks away from recovering from shoulder surgery.
A cast of thousands has been assembled to beat out Martin Bayless at strong safety, but rookie Floyd Fields was unimpressive in summer workouts and Anthony Shelton might have to stay at free safety to support Richard.
Free agent Derrick Kelson and veterans Bobby Humphery and Donnie Elder will go through the motions of trying to look good opposite Gill Byrd.
SPECIALISTS
To dream the impossible dream: The Chargers finished No. 1 in special teams in the NFL in 1991. Next thing you know Montana will be asking for Tolliver’s advice.
Name the two players on the team’s training camp roster who are just taking up space: Punter Ruben Rodriguez and kicker Tom Whelihan. John Kidd will be the Chargers’ punter, and John Carney, who was 19 for 21 in field-goal attempts, will be the kicker.