The 1994 San Diego Chargers season was the team's 35th, its 25th in the National Football League (NFL) and its 34th in San Diego. It featured a surprising run to Super Bowl XXIX, where the Chargers lost to the San Francisco 49ers. To date, this is the only Super Bowl appearance in franchise history.
The 1994 season began with the team trying to improve on their 8–8 record in 1993. The offense underwent a major overhaul, with the club leaders in rushing and receiving yards (Marion Butts and Anthony Miller) both traded during the offseason. Second-year running back Natrone Means took over the lead rusher role, setting a club record with 1,350 yards during the regular season. At wide receiver, the trio of Tony Martin, Shawn Jefferson and Mark Seay combined for over 2,000 yards. On defense, Junior Seau and Leslie O'Neal repeated as the club leaders in tackles and sacks respectively; Stanley Richard ran two of his four interceptions back for touchdowns. Future All-Pro safety Rodney Harrison joined the team as a fifth-round draft pick but primarily played on special teams, where the Chargers had four touchdowns on kick returns and John Carney led the league in scoring. It was the franchise's first season with long snapper David Binn on the roster. He would play seventeen seasons as a Charger, a franchise record.
San Diego won their first six games en route to an 11–5 record and were crowned AFC West champions. In the playoffs, they defeated the Miami Dolphins 22–21 after trailing 21–6 at halftime, then they produced an upset 17–13 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC Championship Game having trailed 13–3 in the 3rd quarter. They advanced to Super Bowl XXIX, only to lose to the heavily favored San Francisco 49ers 49–26 at Joe Robbie Stadium.
Offseason Departures and arrivals 1994 was the first season in which the NFL used a salary cap; it was set at $33.8 million. This created a new challenge for teams trying to retain their top players and to a major turnover of personnel in San Diego, with ten starters from 1993 cut, traded or leaving through free agency.
Guard Mike Zandofsky was the first to depart, signing as a free agent with the Atlanta Falcons on March 5. Four days later, general manager Bobby Beathard avoided losing Center Courtney Hall to free agency when the player agreed to a three-year contract, but cut starting tight end Derrick Walker on the same day to save cap space. The Chargers also made acquisitions through free agency, bringing in cornerback Dwayne Harper from the Seattle Seahawks (he replaced Donald Frank, who Beathard traded for a 6th-round draft pick shortly afterwards), linebacker David Griggs from the Miami Dolphins (replacing Jerrol Williams), and defensive tackle Reuben Davis from the Arizona Cardinals (replacing Blaise Winter).
While Beathard signed Pro Bowl linebacker Junior Seau to a new contract early in the offseason, starting middle linebacker Gary Plummer joined the San Francisco 49ers on March 23. Plummer had spent eight years with the Chargers, appearing in every game since the start of 1988, but Beathard was unable to match San Francisco's offer due to the salary cap; Plummer said, "If I had my choice, I would be playing in San Diego this year." The Chargers replaced Plummer with Dennis Gibson, a seven-year veteran who had spent his entire career with the Detroit Lions and was credited with 479 tackles, the ninth-most in the history of that franchise. In contrast to Plummer, defensive end Burt Grossman asked to be traded after hearing a report that the team were considering offloading him to stay under the cap; Grossman had been the team's first-round draft pick in 1988. Beathard eventually did trade him, receiving a sixth-round draft pick from the Philadelphia Eagles in exchange.
San Diego's second-leading wide receiver from 1993, Nate Lewis, was traded to the Los Angeles Rams for a fourth-round pick on March 18; on the same day, top wide receiver Anthony Miller signed an offer sheet from the Denver Broncos for $10.5 million over four years. As Miller had the Chargers' transition tag, this required them to match the offer within a week to retain the player, whose 1993 salary had been only $1 million. Beathard took what the local Escondido Times-Advocate termed his "biggest gamble... since he arrived in San Diego" on March 25 when he let Miller go to the Broncos, a division rival. Miller had made four Pro Bowls during his six years in San Diego, and ranked second in the AFC for both receptions and receiving yardage the previous year. San Diego had picked up potential replacements in Vance Johnson (a nine-year veteran with the Broncos with a recent history of injuries) and Tony Martin (a backup for the bulk of his four years in Miami). Johnson was injured again during training camp and cut in preseason, but Martin won a roster spot and averaged over 1,000 per season during a four-year stint with the Chargers.
The final starter to leave was running back Marion Butts on April 25; he was a two-time Pro Bowler who had led the team in rushing through each of the previous five seasons. After Beathard was unable to rework Butts' contract to save cap space, he was traded to the New England Patriots in exchange for the teams swapping third-round draft picks. This left Natrone Means entering his second NFL season as the featured running back. Speaking on the roster changes, head coach Bobby Ross said,
NFL draft
San Diego had no first-round pick, as Beathard had traded it for a second round selection in the previous year's draft. They did have two second-round picks in 1994, both of which Beathard used on offensive linemen, explaining, "You better have some young offensive linemen coming up or you are going to be in trouble." Guard Isaac Davis was mostly a backup in 1994, eventually starting 29 games over four seasons with the Chargers; Tackle Vaughn Parker also saw little action as a rookie, but went on to have a 10-season, 107-start career in San Diego. Andre Coleman, chosen in the third round, was a wide receiver noted for his ability as a kick returner. He made an immediate impact in the latter role, scoring three kickoff return touchdowns as a rookie, including one in the Super Bowl, then followed up with three more return touchdowns in 1995, though he was gone from the team after only one more season.
Beathard also found a significant player in the fifth round, selecting Safety Rodney Harrison with the 145th overall pick. Harrison was noted as a hard hitter who lacked discipline by draft analysts Mel Kiper and Joel Buchsbaum. He maintained his reputation for physical play through an NFL career that lasted fifteen seasons (the first nine with San Diego), and was named the Chargers' best late-round steal in a 2016 ESPN article. Harrison was named to two Pro Bowls and one Associated Press All-Pro first team while in San Diego, and went on to be voted to their 50th Anniversary Team in 2009.
Among the Chargers' undrafted rookie signings was long snapper David Binn. He went on to appear in a franchise-record 256 games over the next seventeen seasons.
Personnel
Staff
Roster
Preseason
The Chargers began their preseason by playing in the annual Pro Football Hall of Fame Game. Means took his first preseason carry for 43 yards, and Stan Humphries completed his first pass for 36 yards and a touchdown to Shawn Jefferson; later, Willie Clark added an 86-yard interception return touchdown, but the Charger backups generated little offense once they entered the game and Atlanta won 21–17. The following week, San Diego turned the ball over five times and their receivers dropped numerous passes in a one-sided loss to Houston. Next, the Chargers played an American Bowl game in Germany; Mark Seay and Eric Bieniemy scored first half touchdowns, but San Diego lost 28–20 after Coleman's late turnover led to a key New York Giants touchdown.
San Diego started 0–4 in a preseason campaign for the first time in their history after their 30–24 loss to San Francisco. Their starting offense produced touchdowns for Jefferson and Martin, and backup quarterback Gale Gilbert's touchdown pass to Ronnie Harmon put the Chargers up by eight points before San Francisco came from behind with reserve players in for both sides. The Chargers managed to avoid a winless record with their 24–6 win over the Los Angeles Rams. Ross praised the sharp play of Humphries, who threw touchdowns to Seay and Jefferson in the first half; Gilbert added one to H-Back Alfred Pupunu in an easy victory.
+ 1994 preseason gamesWeekDateOpponentResultRecordVenueAttendance HOF July 30 vs. Atlanta Falcons L 17–21 0–1 Fawcett Stadium, Canton, Ohio 23,185 1 August 6 at Houston Oilers L 3–31 0–2 Alamodome, San Antonio, Texas 29,815 2 August 13 vs. New York Giants L 20–28 0–3 Olympia Stadion, Berlin, Germany 57,329 3 August 18 San Francisco 49ers L 24–30 0–4 Jack Murphy Stadium 45,674 4 August 25 Los Angeles Rams W 24–6 1–4 Jack Murphy Stadium 49,283
Regular season
Overview
Having lost numerous starters on both offense and defense, San Diego were expected to struggle in 1994. In preseason predictions, they were frequently picked to finish 4th or 5th in the five-team AFC West division, with the Miami Herald naming them the worst of the NFL's 28 teams. Once the season started, the Chargers proved to be a surprise success with a 6–0 start that featured wins over all four of their division rivals. Their form slipped as they lost five of the next eight games, with the offense frequently struggling to produce touchdowns. They recovered to win their final two games, clinching their division and a first round bye.
San Diego's offense was built around establishing the running game to set up occasional deep play-action passes. The trade of Butts left Means as the starting running back; aided by a large and experienced offensive line, he responded with 12 touchdowns and 1,350 yards, six times gaining over 100 yards in a game. A powerful rusher with limited breakaway ability, Means had no runs over 25 yards all season but averaged a steady 3.9 yards per carry. His yardage total ranked second in the AFC and established a new franchise record. Bieniemy was his primary backup and added 295 yards; San Diego's average of 115.8 yards per game ranked 7th in the league.
The passing game was led by Humphries, who picked up numerous injuries during the season but still started every game but one. His form matched that of the team in general, as he led the AFC in passer rating through the early winning streak, endured a midseason slump and finished with two strong performances. Overall, Humphries completed 58% of his passes, throwing for 3,209 yards with 17 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. His passer rating of 81.6 was 5th in the AFC and a new high for his career. With Miller and Lewis having left in the offseason, an inexperienced trio shared time at wide receiver—Seay, Jefferson and Martin each had the best statistical season of his career to that point. Seay led the trio with 58 receptions; Martin was the main big-play threat with 17.7 yards per receptions, and his totals of 885 yards and 7 touchdowns were the best of any Charger. The starting tight ends Pupunu and Duane Young were used primarily to block, but Harmon supplemented the wide receivers with 58 catches playing mainly as a third-down back.