Chances are, when Chargers fans awaited the team's third-round draft selection Friday, a cornerback from Texas State wasn't what they had in mind.

Heck, even the cornerback from Texas State wasn't expecting to go 83rd.

"I figured I was going to go later," Craig Mager said, by phone from somewhere in the Lone Star State Friday night.

By later, Mager meant Saturday, in round four or afterward.

But that's the beauty of football scouting.

The Chargers studied Mager and came away impressed by his man-to-man coverage without safety help, by what Tom Telesco called his "feisty" run support, and, last, by his work returning punts, gunning on punts, and blocking gunners.

Coach Mike McCoy lauded Chargers scouts, saying they put in "endless hours on the road."

McCoy said if the team believes a prospect is a "football player," his school and conference take a back seat.

Corner-safety blend?

All of Mager's work on defense came at cornerback, and both Telesco and McCoy said Mager is joining the Chargers as a cornerback.

Can't have too many of those.

But I think they also are intrigued by what else he can do.

Mager said the Chargers haven't told him where he'll line up, but he's heard safety, if only for a look-see, is also a possibility.

"Hybrid" defensive backs are gaining value in the NFL, as defenses try to contend with slick passing games without allowing running backs to trample them.

The 49ers last year took a safety-slot corner, Jimmie Ward of Northern Illinois, 30th.

Thursday, the Packers spent No. 30 on Arizona State safety Damarious Russell. They plan to try him at corner.

Ward (5-11, 193), Russell (5-11, 196) and Mager (5-11, 201) are nearly identical in size.

Mager's official 40-yard dash was 4.44, compared with Randall's 4.46 and Ward's 4.47.

Many corners can't or won't tackle enough to please their coaches, while most safeties can't cover receivers.

Telesco said Mager, who had eight interceptions and a whopping 211 tackles (9.5 for loss), is "very athletic" and "very aggressive."

The point isn't that Mager is a first-round prospect. Many draftniks, in fact, graded him below the third round.

But he is a potential piece to several puzzles, and the Chargers have no one else like him, physically, save starter Jimmy Wilson, the strong safety-slot corner entering his age-29 year.

Telesco called Mager a "size corner."

The leap is long from the Sun Belt Conference, a lower Division I level, to the NFL.

But Mager, who played all 48 games in four years, has fooled the skeptics before.

He said North Texas State was the only other school to offer him a football scholarship. When he got to Texas State, near Austin, one of the coaches told him that if he thought he was going to the NFL, well, he wouldn't be at Texas State.

"I thought he was pretty wrong about that," Mager said.

Friday came the proof.