Byrd Sees Chargers in Same Old Corner : NFL: Interception leader continues to perform, but he longs for the team to be successful.

So what’s new, Gill Byrd?

He’d like to answer with an excited, “Oh, everything. The team’s playing well. I’m leading the league in interceptions, and it looks like I’m finally going to get some recognition.”

But Byrd knows he’s crazy to think like that. He knows he must answer the question the same way he’s answered it for most of his nine years with the Chargers.

“Not much.”

Byrd is leading the team in interceptions for the fourth consecutive year. He’s playing on what he considers to be his ninth losing team in nine seasons, because he doesn’t count the strike-year record of 8-7 in 1987 as a winning season. And he probably won’t make the Pro Bowl for the ninth year in a row.

For Byrd, 30, the monotony is beginning to wear on him. He’s still as dedicated, optimistic and as enthusiastic about his job as ever, but he wonders how long he can keep it up.

And during the most frustrating season of his career, Byrd wonders what it would be like to play on a winning team.

“I want to experience the playoffs,” Byrd said. “I want to experience winning. That’s why it’s so frustrating and that’s why it hurts so much. Because you know it’s a team sport, and that’s what you shoot for.

“You don’t shoot for the individual accomplishments. I know we have the talent. We’ve upgraded this team at every position and we still come up short. Why? I don’t know.”

Byrd says the frustration, for the first time, is affecting his play. Although he is tied for the NFL interception lead with five, he said he is not having a Gill Byrd-type season.

“I haven’t been as disciplined as I have in the past from a technique standpoint,” he said. “It hasn’t hurt me badly, but that’s something in this week and a half that I am going to concentrate on.”

One of the more devoted students of the game, Byrd has not always liked what he’s seen of himself on film this season.

“Being technically sound has always been one of my strong points,” he said. “I started getting away from that because I started looking around wanting to make a play. I wanted to make something happen. I’m doing more harm than good in the long run.

“That has caused me to stray away from the little things. The little things are what kill you. I have to get back down to basics. I haven’t been caught in it, but I know me and I know what I have to improve on.”

Byrd recalled one bit of over-aggressiveness in the Chargers’ victory over the Raiders.

“Sam Graddy came in and I wanted to go for a kill shot,” Byrd said. “All I had to do was tackle him, and it’s a seven-yard gain, but it turned into a 20-, 30-yard gain when I missed.

“I just have to believe in the other 10 guys. When I’m trying to overplay and overcompensate, that’s when big plays come for the other team.”

Jim Mora, Charger secondary coach, said he has noticed more mistakes from Byrd. But he said there has usually been a good reason for the error.

“When he’s gotten beat, he’s trying to make a big play,” Mora said. “Because of the new guys, Gill has felt an added burden.”

Mora said Byrd has tried to help out inexperienced safeties Stanley Richard and Anthony Shelton.

“Earlier in the year, he was trying to take care of the responsibilities of Shelton and Richard,” Mora said. “Sometimes he wasn’t taking care of his own things. He was having to make a lot of the calls and that’s not his job. It’s been tough for Gill.”

But somehow Byrd has managed to keep a smile on his face.

“I know I am the eternal optimist and, around here, I’ve had to be the last year,” he said. “You’ve got to find something positive to look at, to keep you going.”

Yet Byrd realizes he can’t continue going at this pace for too many more years. The career of an NFL cornerback rarely lasts more than 10 years.

“I believe I can play one, maybe two more years in the corner position,” he said. “I think as I get older, then a move to safety would be better suited to me.”

But defensive coordinator Ron Lynn said Byrd is not ready to make the move.

“A lot of guys play corner without the blazing speed,” Lynn said. “Gill has quick, light feet, he’s smart and he understands coverages and defenses. So he can play some more years at corner. But I think eventually, he’ll be a safety.”

Byrd already is familiar with strong and free safety, having played there in the 1985 and 1986 seasons. But with Richard, a rookie, apparently entrenched at free safety for the next decade and rookie Floyd Fields waiting to assume the strong safety position, Byrd said he could be roaming somebody else’s secondary soon.

“I really believe I became more of an asset to the team because I can play so many positions,” he said. “But I don’t think when it’s all said and done, I’ll be a safety for the San Diego Chargers.

“I really believe in the long run, they have an excellent group of young safeties here. From their perspective, I don’t think I fit into their scheme of things.”

Don’t get him wrong, he’s not asking for a trade. He’s just being realistic.

“I don’t want to be anywhere else,” he said. “I started my career here and I would love to finish it here on a winner. It would be tough for me to go somewhere else.

“I think they’re going to turn things around here, it’s just a matter of when. Do I have enough left in these legs to weather the storm?”

Tuesday’s release of tight end Arthur Cox has made Byrd suddenly consider things like retirement and being traded.

“When you’re losing, you want to get rid of everybody,” Byrd said. “(Cox’s release) was a shock, but it was a realization that at any time you can be replaced. It doesn’t matter if you’re a starter or if you have great statistics.

“I don’t think it affected the young guys as much. He came out the same year I did, so it hit home. No question about it.”

But Byrd, who came out of San Jose State as a Charger first-round pick in 1983, probably would be more shocked if he made the Pro Bowl than if he were traded.

“When my peers think of the San Diego Chargers’ secondary, they think, ‘Who do they have back there? Those guys can’t play,’ ” said Byrd, who is fifth among active NFL players in interceptions with 37. “ ‘The reason Gill Byrd gets those interceptions is because they throw so much at their secondary.’ ”

The annual snubbing hurt the first few years. Now Byrd, who has more interceptions in the past 4 1/2 seasons than anyone in the league, said he has other things on his mind.

“Finally making it would be nice, but the thing that really bugs me is the fact that I’ve been here for nine years and we haven’t had a winning season,” he said. “My focus has been taken off individual accomplishments, because they don’t mean a thing when you’re surrounded by all these losing records. Nobody cares.”