Coach Marty Schottenheimer said yesterday he is planning for cornerback Deion Sanders to be on the Washington Redskins' roster when training camp opens Sunday.
Schottenheimer said a conversation he had last week with Sanders's agent, Eugene Parker, left him hopeful but not certain that Sanders will be on the field at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa., when the team has its first full-squad practice Monday.
"My expectation is that he will be there," Schottenheimer said on his first day back in his office at Redskins Park since returning from vacation.
Schottenheimer also left open the possibility that the Redskins will not have all of their draft selections signed by the opening of camp. The team apparently is close to agreements with fourth-round quarterback Sage Rosenfels and fifth-round wide receiver Darnerien McCants, but club officials are concerned about the progress of talks with first-round wide receiver Rod Gardner and second-round cornerback Fred Smoot.
The Redskins recently have been leaning strongly toward retaining Sanders rather than releasing him to clear more than $3.6 million of salary cap space. Sanders is playing baseball for the Toronto Blue Jays' Class AAA affiliate, Syracuse. His seven-year, $56 million contract with the Redskins would require him to report to training camp Sunday unless he is playing baseball in the major leagues.
Parker did not return a telephone message yesterday and Sanders was not available to comment. Schottenheimer said he did not receive a firm commitment from Parker that Sanders will report to training camp Sunday.
"He did not indicate to me with any certainty" what Sanders plans to do, Schottenheimer said.
Schottenheimer declined to say what he will do if Sanders does not report.
"I don't want to speculate," Schottenheimer said. "It's day to day. If he does show up, I would want to visit and talk with him. It will be resolved."
The Redskins once seemed likely to release Sanders, but circumstances have changed. The team has made its salary cap situation work without releasing the former all-pro cornerback. Redskins officials now seem to want to avoid taking the $5.7 million hit to their 2002 salary cap that releasing Sanders would produce. They appear to want to prevent him from signing with another NFL team, and want to bolster their case to force him to return a portion of his $8 million signing bonus if he does not report to camp. The Redskins could gain about $200,000 of salary cap space weekly during the regular season if they place Sanders on the reserve-did not report list.
Sanders has been critical of Schottenheimer but has said he expects to play for the Redskins if he plays football this season. Dave Stewart, the Blue Jays' assistant general manager, said late last week that the team had no immediate plans to promote Sanders to the major leagues.
The Redskins hope to complete deals with Rosenfels and McCants by Thursday, when the team's rookies are scheduled to begin three days of practices at Redskins Park. But team officials are less optimistic about the chances of signing Gardner and Smoot by then.
"Negotiations are ongoing," Schottenheimer said. "I'd like to get it done, but there's no certainty that we will."
Schottenheimer left open the possibility of adding a reserve defensive lineman this week but said the team is unlikely to sign free agent running back Madre Hill, an NFL Europe standout. The Redskins acquired Robert Arnaud, a candidate to back up tailback Stephen Davis, in a trade with the New Orleans Saints on Friday.