CHARGERS: Ex-Bolt Camarillo no fish out of water

By ANDY KENT - For the North County Times | Sunday, October 5, 2008 5:24 PM PDT ∞

MIAMI ---- Former Chargers receiver Greg Camarillo and current Chargers wideout Chris Chambers were both looking forward to Sunday's game between the Chargers and Dolphins. Camarillo, though, was the only one who wound up enjoying the game.

By Sunday's end, Camarillo not only had more catches for more yards than Chambers ---- who returned to the city where he played his first seven seasons ---- but the Stanford graduate emerged as quarterback Chad Pennington's go-to target in the Dolphins' 17-10 upset win.

That second notion was something Camarillo would have laughed at had he been asked during training camp how probable it would be, even though he enjoyed hero status in South Florida for catching the winning touchdown in the Dolphins' lone victory last season. Now he has come to expect it.

"I have confidence in my route-running ability, and Chad is learning to trust me," said Camarillo, who caught six passes for 68 yards and a touchdown. "He knows what I can do, and I know what he can do. The chemistry is being built. He knows the adjustments I'll make, and we're getting on the same page, which is something we didn't have the first two weeks."

The Chargers signed Camarillo as an undrafted free agent out of Stanford in 2005, and he stayed on the practice squad for his entire rookie season. The next year, he appeared in four games on special teams, and in 2007 he was waived at the end of training camp.

Miami picked him up, and he was reunited Cam Cameron, the former Chargers offensive coordinator who was Miami's head coach.

Camarillo began last season mostly in a reserve role with the Dolphins, but after Chambers ---- who caught three passes for 30 yards and a touchdown Sunday ---- was traded to the Chargers, his role expanded. He finished the season with eight catches for 160 yards and two touchdowns.

A new regime in Miami headed by Bill Parcells, first-year general manager Jeff Ireland and first-year coach Tony Sparano stayed true to its word that every position was up for grabs by rewarding Camarillo a spot on the final 53-man roster. Sparano took it a step further by naming him a starter leading into the season opener against the New York Jets.

"He is a team player. He does exactly what he is coached to do," Chargers linebacker Matt Wilhelm said. "He is resilient, I think, in regards to being cut (from the Chargers) and going to a team not as a high-profile receiver and making the roster. ... He has become a possession guy, and in this type of offense, you can't ask for anything more."

Pennington has developed an affinity for the sure-handed Camarillo.

"Greg is doing a great job of finding those small windows and those holes, and he has really good hands," Pennington said. "He's doing a good job."

That's something the Chargers' secondary certainly will not dispute.