Beathard May Go on the Defensive : NFL draft: Barring a trade, Chargers have 23rd pick in the first round.
The National Football League’s get-rich-quick party is Sunday, and the Chargers need a defensive lineman, a cornerback and a wide receiver.
After 22 of the nation’s best players are selected to perform elsewhere, the Chargers will begin their shopping. If the Chargers are lucky, they might get a shot at the fifth- or sixth-best defensive lineman. Or they might have the chance to go after the fifth-rated defensive back. They could also be forced to settle for the No. 3 wide receiver.
There is no need to start ordering those playoff tickets quite yet.
“You’re throwing the dice,” Coach Bobby Ross said. “Everybody is questionable. I was in Atlanta when the Falcons took linebacker Andre Bruce in the first round. He was the answer to everything, but then things didn’t pan out.
“When I was at Kansas City we took two defensive linemen at the top of the draft, Art Still and Sylvester Hicks. Still was an outside linebacker in college and we made him a defensive end and he had a great career. I think Hicks lasted a year and a half. You just never know.”
General Manager Bobby Beathard, however, is paid big bucks to know, and at the end of this season his three-year contract will be up for renegotiation.
“I think we’ll get a good player,” Beathard said. “We need help on defense, but it might be a player at a position that doesn’t fill our most immediate needs. It could be a real good football player. It could be a wide receiver. With Anthony Miller’s knee injury it makes us think a little more about that position.
“I’d like to say we have enough people on the defensive side of the ball to improve us when we’re finished with the draft. We have to have an infusion of some good new people on defense to get better. We would feel better if we came out of this draft with a corner, and I know we’d feel better if we came out with a couple defensive linemen.”
The Chargers will have 13 selections in the 12-round draft, which begins at 8 a.m. Sunday and concludes Monday.
“This is a very good draft; there is a lot of depth to it,” Beathard said. “In the first round, where last year there were maybe 10 top players in the country, this year it goes deeper than that, probably 17 or 18.”
Too bad--the Chargers will have the 23rd pick in round one.
DREAM ON . . “I figure these players will be gone by the time we pick,” Beathard said. “If one of them was there, we’d grab him.”
Steve Emtman, DT, Washington--Charger fans will come to know Mr. Emtman very well this season. The Chargers play the Colts twice this year, and Indianapolis is expected to make Emtman the first player selected in the draft.
Sean Gilbert, DE, Pittsburgh--Beathard rates Gilbert ahead of Emtman, and if they’d let him, he’d probably trade the rest of the Chargers’ first-round picks in the ‘90s for this pass rusher. “I don’t think these kind of guys come along very often,” Beathard said.
Alonzo Spellman, DE, Ohio State--The word around the league is that Spellman spells trouble for the team that selects him. Beathard doesn’t agree. “Some people have questions about how hard he plays; we don’t. I think you would be really fortunate to get this guy.” Miami needs a defensive lineman badly, but after team officials visited with Spellman they decided they didn’t need a defensive lineman that badly.
Terrell Buckley, CB, Florida State--A Deion Sanders’ clone complete with the jewelry. “Reminds me of (Washington cornerback) Darrell Green,” Beathard said. “He’s a guy that will take a chance; he has great confidence in himself.” Led the nation in 1991 with 12 interceptions.
Troy Vincent, CB, Wisconsin--”He’s bigger and a little faster than Buckley,” Beathard said, “but he doesn’t have that confidence that Buckley has yet. He’s a little more conservative, but he’s a starter anywhere he goes.” Insight into Beathard: Given his choice, he’d take the gambling Buckley over the conservative Vincent.
Kevin Smith, CB, Texas A&M--Of; the top six defensive players that Beathard covets, Smith has the best chance to fall within reach of the Chargers. “He’s awfully good,” Beathard said. “He doesn’t have quite the speed the other two have, but he has a great knack for playing the ball. He’s a playmaker.”
GOING, GOING . . “I’d love to have him, but I’m sure he will be gone,” Beathard said.
Dale Carter, CB, Tennessee--Some teams have Carter pegged to play safety, but Beathard said Carter has the talent to play corner, and the Chargers have no one to start opposite Gill Byrd. “He’s also got the ability to be your top receiver,” Beathard said. “He’s got all sorts of skills.” Some folks in the Charger front office have him rated higher than Smith. Led the country in 1990 in kickoff returns with 29.8-yard average. San Francisco, picking No. 18, might get him.
WHAT’S LEFT?
“I would guess we won’t take a defensive lineman in the first round,” Beathard said. “It might be a reach to take a cornerback . . . . We could take a receiver or maybe an offensive lineman if there is no defensive player we like there.”
Jimmy Smith, WR, Jackson State--Considered No. 3 wide receiver after Desmond Howard and Carl Pickens, although Pickens’ stock has plummeted. Has size at 6-1, 200 pounds, but is not considered a breakaway threat with 4.51 time in the 40. “It’s not a great draft for wide receivers,” Beathard said. “I think the only guy that has a chance to slide to us is Smith; I’d say he would have to be a consideration if we got to that point.” Knee injury to Miller and search for dependable No. 2 receiver makes Smith look even more appealing.
Robert Porcher, DE, South Carolina State--Ankle and knee injury to Michigan State’s Bill Johnson, who was expected to be high first-round pick, may elevate Porcher and make him unavailable to Chargers. “He’s a big guy that’s kind of green, but he has chance to be very good,” Beathard said.
Chester McGlocton, DT, Clemson--A mountain at 6-4, 330 pounds. Draft prognosticators have him pegged going to the Raiders on pick No. 16 because of Raiders’ penchant for taking giants. Scouts, however, question his work ethic. “It’s incredible to see how a guy this big can be so athletic and move with such quickness,” Beathard said. “He’s the one defensive tackle that could be a great inside pass rusher. His problem is he’s got to get his weight down and develop some endurance. He takes downs off and you can’t do that at this level.”
Chris Mims, DE, Tennessee--Scouts have been troubled by reports that he has dropped out of school, gained weight and become out of shape. Chargers also question his strength. “He’s way behind other guys in that,” Beathard said. “He has a long ways to go.” However, Mims has impressive outside pass rushing skills, and they have a strength and conditioning coach on the payroll who knows how to toughen up players.
Eugene Chung, OT, Virginia Tech--Fits the traditional “best athlete available” mold, but can Chargers afford to take an offensive tackle? Probably not. Chung has versatility to play guard or tackle, and Beathard said he may have skills to step in as starter. Beathard likes this guy.
Ashley Ambrose, CB, Mississippi Valley State--There is expected to be a run on defensive backs late in round one, which complicates the Chargers’ plan. They would like to grab a player such as Ambrose with their second-round pick. “He’s very green and small (5-10, 168) but doesn’t look so bad when you look at him in person,” Beathard said. “He still has to be trained a lot.”
Steve Israel, CB, Pittsburgh--”He’s got the best speed of all of them,” Beathard said. “He can fly, has decent size (5-10 1/2, 184), but has been hurt a lot. He’s a gifted athlete, and could go after Kevin Smith.” Hamstring injury kept him from Combine workouts, but has been timed at 4.38 in 40.
Marquez Pope, DB, Fresno State--Forget it, he’s represented by agent Steve Feldman, the same Steve Feldman who has been at war with Beathard.
BOOK IT
“We’re not going to take a running back or quarterback with our top pick,” Beathard said.
The Chargers desperately want a defensive lineman, but by the time they select, they may have to force such a pick.
“I don’t think there’s one that we have that strong of a conviction about at the point where we will be picking,” Beathard said. “To get that kind of guy you’d have to get up in the top eight or nine.”
Beathard has talked to teams about sliding forward, but what do the Chargers have to offer?
“I can’t imagine somebody doing it unless we give them Rod Bernstine or Leslie O’Neal or somebody like that,” Beathard said. “And we won’t do that.”
Dallas and Miami, who each own a pair of first-round selections, have expressed an interest in retreating in the first round. Beathard will undoubtedly make the Chargers’ No. 1 pick in the 1993 draft available as trade bait, but other teams will have to be convinced that there will be a draft in 1993.
“That could be a problem,” acknowledged Beathard. “I don’t know what’s going on with that (anti-trust) lawsuit and whether people will be reluctant to take our No. 1 pick. I don’t know what contingencies could be attached to that. I wouldn’t want to make a contingency involving a player.”
If unsuccessful in trading away next year’s No. 1 to improve the team’s lot in Round 1, Beathard will try to use it to gain an extra pick or picks in round two and beyond.
Last year he traded the team’s 1992 first-round pick to Washington for a second-round choice--the 47th selection overall--and took guard Eric Moten. Washington will pick sixth in round one this year in the Chargers’ place; the Chargers select No. 23 in Houston’s position as compensation for the trade of defensive lineman Lee Williams.
“I’m not gun-shy because of the Moten deal; I still like that deal,” Beathard said. “I think we have a top-of-the-line offensive lineman. We’ll do it again if we get the opportunity.”
NFL Draft 1992: Chargers’ Outlook When They Pick
Round Pick (1*) (6) 1** 23 2 33 3 63 (4)*** (90) 5 117 5**** 131 5***** 140 6 147 7 174 8 201 9 231 10 258 11 285 12 315
Comments: () Denotes picks Chargers have traded * Traded to Washington for 1991 second-round pick, Eric Moten ** Received from Houston for Lee Williams *** Traded to New England for 1991 fifth-round pick, Floyd Fields **** Received from Atlanta for Billy Joe Tolliver ***** Received from Washington in Eric Moten trade History of 23rd Player Picked in Round 1
Year Pos Player (Team) 1991 WR Randal Hill (Miami) 1990 C Bern Brostek (Rams) 1989 OT David Williams (Houston) 1988 RB Brad Muster (Chicago) 1987 OT Bruce Armstrong (New England) 1986 OT Mike Schad (Rams) 1985 WR Jessie Hester (Raiders) 1984 WR Louis Lipps (Pittsburgh) 1983 DE Jim Jeffcoat (Dallas) 1982 LB Bob Crable (Jets) 1981 OT Kurt Marsh (Raiders) 1980 CB Roynell Young (Philadelphia) 1979 QB Steve Fuller (Kansas City) 1978 TE Ozzie Newsome (Cleveland) 1977 LB Bob Brudzinski (Rams) 1976 OT Mark Koncar (Green Bay) 1975 OT Darryl Carlton (Miami) 1974 DT Bill Kollar (Cincinnati) 1973 P/K Ray Guy (Raiders) 1972 RB Jeff Kinney (Kansas City) 1971 DB Tim Anderson (San Francisco) 1970 RB Duane Thomas (Dallas)