CHARGERS : Wilson Talks Big, but There’s a Catch : Football: Third-round draft choice didn’t lived up to his vainglory last season. Now he faces stiff competition at wide receiver.
Walter Wilson was a third-round draft choice of the Chargers last season, but promises, promises.
After starting at wide receiver opposite Anthony Miller in the second game of the season and proclaiming himself ready for greatness, Wilson disappeared.
By season’s end, it became apparent that all that talk about Walter Wilson by Walter Wilson was much ado about nothing.
“Every time he starts talking to me about what he’s going to do, I say, ‘I’m not interested; I’m interested in watching you,’ ” said Ted Tollner, quarterbacks coach. “He certainly doesn’t lack confidence verbally, but we’re not interested in that.
“We’ve told him that. We’re looking for production and consistency. If he wants to talk, fine. If he doesn’t want to talk, fine. But it has no bearing on whether he can contribute to the team.”
The Chargers need catches. They need someone to step forward and take the double coverage off Miller. They need Wilson to live up to expectations.
“In any sport, if you don’t perform up to the level they expect, you’re going to be suspect,” said Wilson, who caught 10 passes for 87 yards last year. “That’s business and that’s the way the game goes.
“But I’m not going to take a back seat to anyone on this team. I can say Anthony Miller is one of the best receivers around, and I give him what he deserves, but I can’t say that about anybody else here.”
Miller caught 63 passes last season; the other wide receivers on the team combined to make 24 receptions. Nate Lewis, the leader among the also-rans with 14 catches, leads a list of eight receivers vying for full-time employment opposite Miller.
“We’re looking for two guys to play with Anthony,” Tollner said. “Nate Lewis is there now as one of the guys because he finished up and did well, but there’s no lock on the position. That job has not been won. In my opinion, it’s open to be won.”
Uncharacteristically, Walter Wilson goes quiet.
“I’m going to let my talent speak for itself,” he said. “Last year I was confident, not cocky. You have to sell yourself and feel good about yourself, and I got drafted in third round and you have to feel good about that.
“But unfortunately for me, things didn’t go my way. I hurt my knee, my ankle, my hamstring, my hip and you name it. I could never get familiar with my position.”
As a result, the Chargers could not count on Wilson. The man talked a good game, but come game time he was unavailable for duty.
During the off-season, however, he worked to make his body cooperate. He ran in the sand, rode a bicycle and stretched his muscles every which way.
“I’ve been on the field injury free in training camp and that’s all I can do,” he said. “They just have to believe I’m the guy they picked in the third round.”
But can he stay healthy? Can he keep himself on the practice field? Can he be counted on?
“Everything you see you like,” Tollner said. “It’s kind of a tease, is what it is. You see ability, you see why he was drafted where he was, but that’s as far as you can go. You’ve got to see it happen consistently.”
The Chargers, however, used three draft picks on wide receivers. They added another via Plan B, and Coach Dan Henning has been singing the praises of holdover free agent, Kitrick Taylor.
They can talk all they want, Wilson said.
“They’re just covering their tails,” he said. “I had a few injuries and they might think Walt might get hurt again. That’s business. But I just don’t think what they drafted can come in here and move Walter Wilson out of here. I just don’t see it.”
Henning said the Chargers have had another “defector.”
He said free agent tight end Geoff Cook pulled out of camp without explanation.
The Chargers will practice this morning at UCSD, and then fly to Flagstaff, Ariz., to practice against the Phoenix Cardinals at the University of Northern Arizona. The teams will practice together Thursday and Friday, and then will meet Saturday in a scrimmage.
A few years ago, linebacker Billy Ray Smith said he might consider ending his career elsewhere if he felt the Chargers couldn’t satisfy his desire to win a Super Bowl ring.
“I’m at that stage of my career where they’ll make that decision for me about whether I’ll go someplace else,” Smith said. “This last off-season they protected me (in Plan B free agency), but I started working out in January just in case. Stranger things have happened, and it’s always good to have your bases covered.”
Smith is beginning his ninth year with the Chargers and is being challenged for playing time by Henry Rolling. Although Smith won’t turn 30 until next month, he’s being written off by some as an aging linebacker who is near the end of his career.
“It’s not the worse thing in the world for people to say that your time in football is running down,” Smith said. “Everybody’s career ends sometime, but they better watch it when they say it about me, because I think I still have some football left in me to play.
“I’ve been hurt two of the last three years. I’ve had calf- and stomach-muscle problems and both of those have ended guys’ careers,” Smith said. “I’m just happy that I’m back going to camp and have the chance to play again.”
New York Jets’ general manager Dick Steinberg confirmed Tuesday that he has talked to the Chargers about obtaining holdout defensive lineman Lee Williams.
“It makes sense is the price is right,” Steinberg said. “The price hasn’t been determined yet.”
When asked if the Jets would surrender a first-round pick for Williams, Steinberg told Newsday, “It’s not a dead issue; we’re thinking about it.”