Butler’s Services Paying Dividends for the Chargers

Marcellus Wiley, one of the Chargers’ new recruits, and the quarterback he hopes will be the next recruit, Doug Flutie, had dinner with some of the Charger brass Monday night.

And don’t be surprised if Buffalo wings become a staple of the Charger training table.

“This could be Buffalo West,” Wiley said.

New General Manager John Butler has been acting decisively, jettisoning Ryan Leaf last week and bringing in free agents in bunches for inspection. Tuesday, for instance, cornerback Alex Molden, late of New Orleans, agreed to a six-year, $16.1-million contract.

Tuesday’s other star visitor was Flutie, who like Wiley played at Buffalo when Butler was general manager there.

“I really do like this situation,” Flutie said Tuesday at Charger headquarters. “No. 1, there’s nowhere to go but up, and I’m very comfortable with the staff.

“It just seems like a good atmosphere. Obviously this is a team that’s had a talented defense the last couple of years and been in position to win a lot of games and hasn’t.

“I don’t think this franchise is that far off.”

Flutie will visit at least a couple of other teams--perhaps Washington and New England.

“There are plenty of other options,” said Flutie, released by the Bills after they’d chosen Rob Johnson as their starter. “Then again, you want to know you’re the first choice of that team and not an alternative.”

How could the Chargers go from being 1-15 to landing one of the top young defensive free agents in Wiley--the defensive end who went from Compton to Columbia University to burgeoning stardom in Buffalo--and in the running for Flutie?

Butler is one reason.

“As soon as [Butler] was released from Buffalo--it was still during the season--people in the locker room were talking, ‘San Diego,’ ” said Wiley, 26, who had 10 1/2 sacks for the Bills last season, his first as a starter. “[Linebacker] Sam Rogers is coming in to visit too.”

Knowing Butler so well, Wiley agreed quickly Sunday to come home to Southern California for a six-year, $40-million deal that is the biggest contract in team history.

Already Butler has made a splash. His biggest moment is still ahead, with the Chargers holding the No. 1 pick and the opportunity to draft Michael Vick in April.

Flutie, 38, said he’d have no problem with that.

“If it’s Mike, that’s great. If it’s someone else, that’s great too,” he said. “I would take a lot of pride in helping a young guy along and showing him the way. Then after you retired, you’d take a lot of pride in what he accomplished too.”

Wiley believes Flutie is precisely the player the Chargers need.

“It’s between the ears, what he can do for a team,” he said.

“I know the concerns previously here,” he said, alluding to Leaf. “You’re talking the other end of the spectrum. That’s what you get with Flutie.

“After 1-15, guys might need an attitude adjustment. Fourth and goal, two minutes to go, they’ve been there and lost in that situation. He’s a guy who’s been there and brings faith and confidence you can win.”

Flutie was 21-9 as the Bills’ starter, and he beat the Chargers in relief last season in overtime.

Butler put it concisely.

“That’s a winner,” he said.

The Chargers were not.

They recorded their only victory against Kansas City when Chief starter Elvis Grbac was injured and 44-year-old Warren Moon took his place.

Wiley isn’t daunted. It doesn’t take an Ivy League degree to see teams have gone from nowhere to the Super Bowl in recent years--though Wiley did attend Columbia.

“It was tough in high school, going to the playground and saying I was going to Columbia,” he said. “But we turned it around. We were 2-8 my first year, and 8-2 my senior year.

“This is the same situation. I know the blueprint is here.

“I’ve been in a situation I’d have to say is much worse than 1-15. Columbia had a 44-game losing streak before I got there. I’m not discouraged at all by last year’s record. As the last two Super Bowl champs have attested, you can go one year being mediocre and the next year be champs, so San Diego can be the place.”

Now he’s trying to sell Flutie on it, though family concerns are an issue. Flutie and his wife have two children, a daughter, 12, and a son, 8, who is autistic.

“It’s difficult,” Flutie said. “The kids are going to be in school back home. It makes it tough being across the country. But I’m going to go where the best football situation is for me. It’s only a few more years for me now and I want to make the best of it.”

Wiley considers himself Flutie’s personal recruiter.

“I think he wants to be here,” he said. “No one knows the Magic Lamp like me. I have all kinds of nicknames for ‘Flakes.’ ”

Financial concerns have yet to be addressed.

Wiley shrugged.

“Flakes has enough money. He can go sign some autographs or something.”