A cell-phone ring awoke Kenny Wiggins at 7:30 a.m. Friday, the offensive lineman darn near jumping out of bed to check his mobile device and see, almost out of habit by now, if it happened again.

The call.

It was cut day, the first of two for the Chargers. They spread their transactions across two days when reducing from a 75- to 53-man roster, a tradition Wiggins knows too well. Last year, his phone rang on this same first day.

Wiggins checked his phone.


Nothing.

Nearby, wife Jennifer’s phone continued to ring. Wiggins exhaled. He didn’t bother attempting to fall back asleep.

He was up.

On Thursday night, Wiggins completed his sixth NFL preseason. The first five have ended the same way, a phone call notifying him that his respective team — the first three were the 49ers, the next two the Chargers — decided to move in another direction. That call didn’t come Friday. He’ll learn Saturday whether or not he is in the clear.


Wiggins has reasons to be optimistic.

He can play all five positions on the offensive line. He gained starting experience in 2015. He is seen as reliable, someone who is consistent each day he arrives at Chargers Park.

Still, he cannot rest.

“Every time you hear the phone ring, it’s eerie,” Wiggins said Friday. “Always on edge. All my friends know. Don’t even text me. Don’t even call me. I’ll let you know if I’m in the clear or if I’m cut. Just don’t be calling and asking what’s going on.”


Some players aren’t on edge.

They have roster security. They know they are part of a franchise’s long-term plans.

Wiggins, 28, never has had that luxury.

He was a projected mid-to-late-round draft pick, he said, during his 2010 senior season at Fresno State before suffering a torn labrum. The shoulder injury, which required Dec. 23 surgery, forced him to be sidelined during the pre-draft evaluation process, keeping him from participating in such scouting events as an All-Star showcase game or his pro day.


The 49ers had three seventh-round picks that draft.

One, they told him, would be used to select him.

The seventh round came and went. Wiggins went undrafted. His agent, Frank Bauer of Sun West Sports in Stockton, told him San Francisco was interested in signing him as a rookie free agent. He did, and so began a circuitous route to the Chargers.

The short of it?


After being cut following his rookie preseason (his first exit phone call), Wiggins worked on Jennifer’s parents’ 140-acre raisin and almond farm in the outskirts of Fresno, manning a tractor while awaiting his next NFL opportunity. Months passed. None came. He accepted an invite from his former college quarterback to join him on the UFL’s Sacramento Mountain Lions. He received $10,000 for a 10-day, two-game stint.

Weeks later, Wiggins joined the Ravens’ practice squad.

He finished the 2011 season with them, a tenure that lasted through an AFC Championship Game loss to the Patriots. Baltimore did not retain his rights, and Wiggins spent his second preseason with the 49ers. He was cut afterward (second phone call) and joined a practice squad on which he remained through the team’s Super Bowl loss to Baltimore.

San Francisco cut him following his third preseason. His third phone call.


But in the exhibition finale, he finished strong against the Chargers. They offered him a spot on their practice squad where he spent the 2013 season, bouncing on and off the 53-man roster without seeing an offensive snap.

In 2014, the Chargers cut him after training camp. The fourth call.

His practice-squad eligibility was exhausted, so he toiled away from football for months. He and Jennifer had their share of talks in that span, as he considered whether to give up the game. She encouraged him to continue, Wiggins said, not wanting him to look back years later and regret walking away so soon.

San Diego re-signed him that December.


In 2015, the guard-tackle vowed to make himself as versatile as possible, telling then-offensive line coach Joe D’Alessandris he wanted to learn the center position. Wiggins did. Still, a fifth phone call came.

At this point, Wiggins hadn’t played a single regular-season offensive snap in his NFL career. A Week 1 ankle injury to guard D.J. Fluker changed that, as it prompted the Chargers to sign him onto their 53-man roster. He saw his first offensive snaps in Week 3 and started against the Browns the following week, his name being introduced at Qualcomm Stadium while he ran out of the pre-game tunnel.

Wiggins started eight of the 15 games in which he was active. On Thursday, he was a pre-game captain for the team’s final exhibition game against the 49ers.

He hopes he’s done enough.


But now, he must wait, like the five times before. He hopes finally to have survived the 53-man roster cut, which the team must complete by 1 p.m. PT.

“There can only be 53,” Wiggins said. “That’s the business.”

It rests on a call that may or may not come.

Notable


• The Chargers did not announce which players they cut Friday, but sources said that the list includes the following 11 players: cornerback Richard Crawford, wide receiver DeAndre Reaves, guard-tackle Marcel Jones, tight end Matt Weiser, tight end Tim Semisch, running back Gus Johnson, defensive lineman Chuka Ndulue, defensive lineman Kamal Johnson, cornerback Larry Scott, inside linebacker James Ross and guard Vi Teofilo.

RELATED