The San Diego Chargers season was the franchise's 34th season in the National Football League (NFL), its 44th overall and the second under head coach Marty Schottenheimer. They finished the campaign last in their division with only four wins and earned the #1 pick in the 2004 NFL draft. They played one “home” game during the season, against the Miami Dolphins, at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona where the Arizona Cardinals played, due to the Cedar Fire. The team declined from the previous season, as the Chargers won four games and surrendered the second most points per game (27.6), trailing only the Arizona Cardinals during the season. It was the worst season of Schottenheimer's career, and also his fourth consecutive non-winning season in the NFL, but also his final losing season as a coach.
On April 11, 2003, general manager John Butler died from lymphoma and A. J. Smith, a former assistant to Butler, took over the position for the next 10 seasons; during the season the Chargers wore a patch on their jerseys with the initials "JB" to commemorate John Butler.
For the first time since 1989, Junior Seau was not on the opening day roster.
NFL draft
Personnel Staff
Roster
Preseason
WeekDateOpponentResultRecordVenueAttendance 1 August 10 at Seattle Seahawks L 7–20 0–1 Seahawks Stadium 2 August 16 Arizona Cardinals L 10–16 0–2 Qualcomm Stadium 3 August 22 at Houston Texans W 19–17 1–2 Reliant Stadium 4 August 28 San Francisco 49ers W 24–3 2–2 Qualcomm Stadium
Regular season
Schedule In addition to their regular games with AFC West rivals, the Chargers played teams from the AFC North and NFC North as per the schedule rotation, and also played intraconference games against the Jaguars and the Dolphins based on divisional positions from 2002.
Oddly, this season marked the first time that the Chargers played the Jaguars, despite that team existing since 1995. This occurred due to old NFL scheduling formulas in place prior to 2002, whereby teams had no rotating schedule opposing members of other divisions within their own conference, but played interdivisional conference games according to position within a season’s table. The Chargers played the Tennessee Titans only once during this periodSan Diego Chargers v Tennessee Titans/Houston Oilers (in 1998) but played the Bengals five timesSan Diego Chargers v Cincinnati Bengals during these years.
In preceding years, even longer gaps between two teams playing each other had occurred. For instance the Jets never opposed the Cardinals between 1979 and 1995 inclusive.Arizona Cardinals v New York Jets
The Week 8 home game against the Miami Dolphins was relocated to Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona due to a massive wildfire that turned Qualcomm Stadium into an evacuation site.
Week Date Opponent Result Record Venue Attendance Recap 1 September 7 at Kansas City Chiefs L 14–27 0–1 Arrowhead Stadium 78,048 Recap 2 September 14 Denver Broncos L 13–37 0–2 Qualcomm Stadium 65,445 Recap 3 September 21 Baltimore Ravens L 10–24 0–3 Qualcomm Stadium 52,028 Recap 4 September 28 at Oakland Raiders L 31–34 (OT) 0–4 Network Associates Coliseum 54,078 Recap 5 October 5 at Jacksonville Jaguars L 21–27 0–5 Alltel Stadium 48,954 Recap 6 Bye 7 October 19 at Cleveland Browns W 26–20 1–5 Cleveland Browns Stadium 73,238 Recap 8 Miami Dolphins L 10–26 1–6 Sun Devil Stadium 73,014 Recap 9 November 2 at Chicago Bears L 7–20 1–7 Soldier Field 61,500 Recap 10 November 9 Minnesota Vikings W 42–28 2–7 Qualcomm Stadium 64,738 Recap 11 November 16 at Denver Broncos L 8–37 2–8 Invesco Field 75,217 Recap 12 November 23 Cincinnati Bengals L 27–34 2–9 Qualcomm Stadium 52,069 Recap 13 November 30 Kansas City Chiefs L 24–28 2–10 Qualcomm Stadium 57,671 Recap 14 December 7 at Detroit Lions W 14–7 3–10 Ford Field 61,544 Recap 15 December 14 Green Bay Packers L 21–38 3–11 Qualcomm Stadium 64,978 Recap 16 December 21 at Pittsburgh Steelers L 24–40 3–12 Heinz Field 52,527 Recap 17 December 28 Oakland Raiders W 21–14 4–12 Qualcomm Stadium 62,222 Recap Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.
Week 1: at Kansas City Chiefs
Week 2: vs. Denver Broncos
Week 3: vs. Baltimore Ravens
Week 4: at Oakland Raiders
Week 5: at Jacksonville Jaguars
Week 7: at Cleveland Browns
Week 8: vs. Miami Dolphins
Week 9: at Chicago Bears
Week 10: vs. Minnesota Vikings
Week 11: at Denver Broncos
Week 12: vs. Cincinnati Bengals
Week 13: vs. Kansas City Chiefs
Week 14: at Detroit Lions
Week 15: vs. Green Bay Packers
Week 16: at Pittsburgh Steelers
Week 17: vs. Oakland Raiders
Standings
Awards No Chargers were named to the AFC Pro Bowl squad. However, LaDainian Tomlinson was voted a second-team All-Pro by the Associated Press. He also finished in second place for the AP NFL Offensive Player of the Year award, with 8 of the 50 available votes.
References