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Column: Quartet of San Diego safeties eyes NFL wild-card playoff games

Los Angeles Rams free safety Eric Weddle hasn't played since the 2019 season.
(Elaine Thompson / Associated Press)

Eric Weddle seeks Super Bowl, a prize he envisioned for San Diego when he played for Chargers

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The upcoming Super Bowl tournament is off to an unpredictable, even theatrical start without a football being kicked, passed or caught.

A Poway father of four sprang the four-round event’s first big surprise by coming out of retirement to join one of six teams participating in the NFC wild-card playoffs.

Eric Weddle said Thursday that, barring a setback before kickoff Monday night, he’ll be wearing No. 20 for the Los Angeles Rams and aligning their defense for a number of snaps against the Arizona Cardinals inside the Kroenke Dome.

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That scenario still needs to be seen, to be believed.

Weddle, 37, last played more than two years ago. The only defense he has directed since facing Arizona in December 2019 was that of the Rancho Bernardo Broncos, a collection of boys age 12 and under he coaches. “We went 11-1, won the championship,” Weddle said.

It was 23 months ago that the former San Diego Chargers All-Pro safety announced his retirement, signing off with “Beard Out”.

The Cardinals won’t be feeling nostalgic. Even if Weddle’s snap count is limited to about a third of a full game, as the player implied may happen, his potential return has caused some NFL observers to wince.

“I hope he signed a waiver, because he’s liable to get hurt,” said former NFL executive Michael Lombardi on his podcast. “The poor (guy) hasn’t played in two years. They’re going to break him in half. What’s going to happen?”

Referring to L.A. having lost two safeties to injury in its season finale Sunday, Lombardi added: “Is this is a sign of desperation (by the Rams)? Seriously.”

Weddle knows he’s hopping into a raging river without benefit of standard preparation. He said he respects how hard NFL players must work to attain game fitness. He acknowledged the two-year layoff may have dulled his timing, a critical piece to NFL survival.

A heavy dose of five-on-five basketball games in San Diego the past several months, he asserted, has prepared him for the reactive movements of defensive football.

He said watching every snap the Rams played in their 17 games lowered his mental learning curve and that he had no mental errors in Thursday’s practice when orchestrating the defense, a task where the Rams broke down late in Sunday’s loss to the 49ers after signal-caller Jordan Fuller left with a season-ending injury.

“Whether I’m crazy or not, that’s for everyone else to decide,” Weddle told reporters after completing his second practice following the Rams’ request Tuesday night, from coordinator Raheem Morris, that he rejoin a franchise for which he played the 2019 season under a different coordinator.

Weddle quipped: “Hopefully, I’ll be able to walk off the field, not crawl off the field” on Monday.

If he makes it onto the green carpet, it might rival his first extraordinary postseason for creating memories.

He was a rookie with San Diego, playing in a Divisional game, when he made a left-handed interception in the Indianapolis dome, while being pancaked by Colts center Jeff Saturday near the Chargers’ 2-yard line.

The pickoff put a frown on the face of Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning and may have prevented the Colts from scoring a go-ahead touchdown.

The Chargers won the game as an 11-point underdog, despite losing Philip Rivers to a torn ACL in the fourth quarter.

Though Bill Belichick’s undefeated Patriots won the AFC Championship Game the following week at New England, Weddle emerged from that postseason with visions of Super Bowl glory for San Diego.

Thousands of San Diegans looked at a Chargers roster loaded with stars who were in their 20s and reached the same conclusion: the Bolts should return to the Super Bowl qualifier, more than once. And in the same dream world, they would win it.

But neither Team Spanos nor Weddle has won a Divisional game since coach Norv Turner’s first team outpointed the Colts, 28-24, in January 2008.

“When you’re young,” said Weddle, who was 23 when he assumed the Bolts would contend for multiple Lombardi Trophies, “you’re naïve to the game and how hard it is to just make the playoffs, let alone advance and have a chance to be a game away from the Super Bowl.”

Reasoning that these Rams “have all the pieces” to win four consecutive games, including the Super Bowl that will be played Feb. 13 in Inglewood, Weddle said he would’ve regretted not accepting the team’s offer. He said he wanted to set a good example to his wife and four children, by taking on a challenge.

“Honestly, I’ve done pretty much everything that you can do individually,” he said.

“But,” he added, “the one thing that is why I played and why you take the sacrifice and why you turn everything out for your team is for the chance at a Super Bowl. To be able to sit here and say I have a chance to be a part of a team, it’s mind boggling, really. Pretty fortunate, pretty blessed to be even thought of to come back. And now, it’s on me to make the most of it.”

San Diego safeties

Terrell Burgess, an Oceanside native, San Marcos High alum and former understudy to fellow Utah alum Weddle, figures to play in the Rams’ defensive backfield Monday apart from his duties on five special teams units. The 23-year-old Burgess had 18 defensive snaps last week, tied for his second-most this season, and prevented a touchdown by tackling All-Pro tight end George Kittle.

San Diego State alum Damontae Kazee stands to appear in his third postseason game Sunday, this time as the Cowboys starting free safety against the 49ers. Kazee was part of a much-improved Dallas defense under first-year coordinator Dan Quinn, who coached Kazee with the Atlanta Falcons and has been linked to the Denver Broncos’ head-coach job. Kazee, 28, forced two fumbles this year. His physical style will be tested by an explosive Niners offense built on powerful rushes and chunk gains after the catch.

The Patriots’ Adrian Phillips, a versatile former Weddle protégé who launched his NFL career in San Diego by earning a roster spot in 2014, as an undrafted safety out of Texas, will start at Buffalo. Phillips, 29, has lined up at free safety, slot corner, perimeter cornerback, linebacker and on the line.

Phillips “almost always does the right thing,” Belichick said in November. The team recently extended his contract by three years. A member of the final three San Diego teams, Phillips has played in two postseason games, most recently L.A.’s blowout loss at New England on Jan. 13, 2019.

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