Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson hasn’t played a down in the preseason in the last two years, and he has only 14 carries in the preseason in his entire career.

Considering that history — and considering that he ended the postseason on the bench with a bad knee — it would stand to reason that Tomlinson will probably get all the rest he can before September and again sit out the preseason in 2008.

But Tomlinson says he might want to play in at least one exhibition game.

“We’ll have to see how it goes,” Tomlinson tells Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune. “It may be good for me to play in one preseason game.”

Tomlinson says Chargers running backs coach Ollie Wilson has urged him to consider whether skipping the preseason causes him to get off to slow starts to the regular season.  In 2007 Tomlinson averaged fewer than three yards a carry in each of the Chargers’ first three games.

“Maybe that’s a part of not playing in the preseason; maybe it’s not,” Tomlinson said.  ”Who knows?  Maybe I might get a chance to run a little bit in the preseason.”

Tomlinson said his knee is about 90 percent healed, and that he will be limited at minicamp in May but completely ready for the start of training camp in July.  He called his knee, “a lot better than I would have expected at this time.”