Sports at Lunch, A.J. Smith
There was a question about why the Chargers released promising punt returner Wes Welker after one game. Someone else asked about keeping four quarterbacks on the roster.
There were queries about switching Quentin Jammer to safety and about releasing punter Darren Bennett in the offseason. Someone also asked for another recap of the poker moves Chargers general manager A.J. Smith made on draft day in April.
Smith fielded those questions and more on Sept. 17 San Diego Hall of Champions Sports at Lunch Speaker Series. That’s what general managers do _ build teams -- and Smith had straight answers for the lunch guests asking about the Chargers’ 2004 roster.
“We did too -- that’s why he made the team,” Smith said in response when questioner added he liked Welker’s potential. “But we looked hard at a safety. We only had seven guys (in the secondary), and we were looking for depth. We wanted to bring (Welker) back on the practice squad, but he’s headed for Tampa Bay. There is an opportunity for him there because they’ve had a ton of injuries, and he wanted to go there.”
The Chargers’ signed safety Clinton Hart, a veteran who played with the Philadelphia Eagles, as a fourth safety on the roster behind starters Terrence Kiel and Jerry Wilson and Hanik Milligan, the lone backup in the season-opening 27-20 win over Houston.
As for keeping four quarterbacks, Smith explained why the Chargers made the unusual roster move of keeping starter Drew Brees and three backups, veteran Doug Flutie, rookie Phillip Rivers and Cleo Lemon.
“In 27 years in the league, I’ve always noticed the more talented players you bring, you’ll be surprised how much better the players in front of them play,” Smith said. “That’s what were seeing right now. Drew has handled everything fantastic and is playing very well. Drew is an unrestricted free agent, so what happens next year remains to be seen. Phillip is a young guy with a six-year contract, so you know where he’s going to be. Doug Flutie has a three-year contract, and we’ll take that step by step. Cleo is a young guy who hasn’t played, but we had time invested in him.”
The Chargers feared if they waived Lemon in an attempt to sign him to the practice squad for a second straight year, he would have been claimed by another team.
“Instead of trading away a guy or gambling on waiving a guy, we made a decision to keep four,” Smith said. “We’re totally protected injury-wise.”
Smith explained the Jammer’s best position is cornerback, although he is a rare talent with the ability to be a physical safety. As for releasing Bennett, Smith said the Chargers drafted Mike Scifres in 2003 as a punter for the future. He explained a similar thought process in drafting kicker Nate Kaeding with a third-round pick.
“We had a decision to make with Darren Bennett,” Smith said. “We think we have a young guy with the talent to go to the Pro Bowl. If we let Mike Scifres go by, we didn’t know when another one like him would come by. It falls to me to make those decisions. I hope we made the right decision.”
One of the tougher decisions Smith made was drafting Eli Manning with the first pick after the Mississippi quarterback said he didn’t want to play for the Chargers. Smith used his poker face to take Manning and subsequently pull off a trade that sent him to the New York Giants for the rights to Rivers, a third-round pick in 2004 (used on Kaeding) and a first- and fifth-round picks in 2005.
Many GMs would have postured when asked to recount his reasons behind the trade, considering how it turned out, but Smith doesn’t play his cards that way.
“You want me to go over that again?” he asked casually. “Eli was one of four candidates we were considering. To be singled out as the one team he didn’t want to play for we took as a personal insult to the Spanos family, myself and the head coach. I made some calls to find out the agenda, find out if he truly didn’t want to be here and why. Then I made plans to make a value pick.”
By value pick, Smith explained a package deal he had in mind from the Giants in return for Manning.
“We made the pick (Manning),” Smith said. “Then I called the Giants and said, ‘Are you ready?’
One other question was about the holdout of center Jason Ball. It came from Marti Malano, who was sitting at the San Diego State table as the secretary for Aztecs’ basketball coach Steve Fisher. Her son is Mike Malano, the 1999 San Diego State All-American center who played a couple of years with the Minnesota Vikings, so she has a soft spot for centers.
Smith gave an interesting answer. What did he say? You should have been at the Sports at Lunch on Sept. 17. Then you could have heard him say, a day earlier than you read it in the newspaper or heard it in the electronic media, that Ball had decided to end holdout.
