Untraded Turner content with his role in backfield

By: MIKE SULLIVAN - Staff Writer | Tuesday, May 1, 2007 11:21 PM PDT ∞

SAN DIEGO -- Each year, Michael Turner watches the NFL draft, but it was different this year as he sat in front of the television set last Saturday in North Chicago, closely eyeing the proceedings.

Turner was a restricted free agent and was coveted in trade talks that persisted as the draft approached. He was waiting to see if his name would flash across the screen, but Saturday's first day of the draft ended without the Chargers trading him.

Two days later, general manager A.J. Smith pulled Turner off the trading block, saying the highly productive backup running back would remain with the Chargers for the entire 2007 season.

Finally, two months of twists and turns and lots of speculation were over.

"It brings closure to this chapter, and I get back focused on being a Charger and not focus on being somewhere else," Turner said on Tuesday after working out at the Chargers' facility. "Now I can work out with the fellas and have confidence that I'm going to be here and working together towards something."

Through the period of uncertainty, Turner did his best to be patient, even as he wondered about his future. Turner visited Buffalo and Tennessee during the free-agent process and was impressed with both organizations.

But whether he was destined to stay in San Diego and be a reserve or head elsewhere as a starting running back, Turner felt there wasn't a bad resolution.

"I knew at the start of this process that it was like a win-win for me," said Turner, who rushed 80 times for 502 yards last season. "On one side, I would be on a good team that's ready to win a championship right now. The other side, I'd be the man, and it would depend on what team I was going to -- a team just trying to get to the playoffs or a team on the bubble of doing something great."

Turner, 25, has been a solid caddy to NFL MVP LaDainian Tomlinson during his first three NFL seasons. The Chargers valued him so dearly that they tendered him at the highest possible rate, guaranteeing him a $2.35 million salary for this season and making other teams wary of signing him to an offer sheet.

"When they put the high tender on me, I knew it would be hard for teams to give up a first and a third," Turner said of the draft picks a team would have been required to relinquish to sign him.

If Turner had departed, his new team would have given Turner a wealthy long-term contract in line with what a starting NFL running back receives. Instead, that option won't be available until Turner becomes an unrestricted free agent following the 2007 season.

It appears that only a serious injury can derail his chances of landing both a starting job and a rich contract.

"I can't play scared," Turner said. "You can't think like that. You can't play like that."

New coach Norv Turner's preliminary pitch is that he will find ways to get Turner the ball. Turner, meanwhile, has no issue with serving as a very valuable caddy to Tomlinson, one of the NFL's top all-time backs.

"I knew that since Day 1 when I got here," said Turner, a fifth-round pick in the 2004 draft. "Going to San Diego and they've got L.T., so it wasn't like I was planning on coming here and taking over. I was planning to get better every year and getting my name out there."

Chargers note

General manager A.J. Smith declined to say whether the team might have interest in WR Keyshawn Johnson, who was cut by the Carolina Panthers on Tuesday. Johnson's college coach at USC was John Robinson, a longtime mentor of Chargers coach Norv Turner.

-- Contact staff writer Mike Sullivan at (760) 739-6645 or msullivan@nctimes.com.

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