Chargers outside linebacker Shawne Merriman wants a new contract, and isn’t holding it in anymore.
“I feel like I’m in the worst possible situation,” Merriman told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “I don’t know if my team wants me there. So I’m going to have fun with the situation.”
The Chargers are hesitant to lock up Merriman long term because the player formerly known as “Lights Out” was mostly a non-factor in 2009, is an impending restricted free agent, and the club used a first-round pick on Larry English last April. English, of course, plays the same position as Merriman.
As the Union-Trib also points out, Chargers G.M. A.J. Smith has not been pleased with many of Merriman’s off-field actions.
Merriman says he wants to stay with the Chargers, but his most likely way of doing so in 2010 is to play on a one-year, restricted free agent tender. He isn’t going to get a long-term extension.