2003 San Diego Chargers season

The 2003 San Diego Chargers season was the franchise's 34th season in the National Football League (NFL), its 44rth 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. 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.

2003 San Diego Chargers season
Head coach	Marty Schottenheimer
General manager	A.J. Smith
Owner	Alex Spanos
Home field	Qualcomm Stadium
Results
Record	4–12
Division place	4th AFC West
Playoff finish	Did not qualify

NFL Draft

2003 San Diego Chargers draft
Round	Pick	Player	Position	College	Notes
1	30	Sammy Davis	CB	Texas A&M	Pick from PHI
2	46	Drayton Florence	CB	Tuskegee
2	62	Terrence Kiel	S	Texas A&M	Pick from GB
3	80	Courtney Van Buren	OT	Arkansas–Pine Bluff
4	112	Matt Wilhelm	LB	Ohio St
5	149	Mike Scifres	P	Western Illinois
6	188	Hanik Milligan *	S	Houston
7	229	Andrew Pinnock	FB	South Carolina
Made roster    †   Pro Football Hall of Fame    *   Made at least one Pro Bowl during career

Personnel

Staff

2003 San Diego Chargers staff

	Front office Owner – Alex Spanos President/Chief Executive Officer – Dean Spanos Executive Vice President – Michael Spanos Executive Vice President/General Manager – A. J. Smith Assistant General Manager/Director of Player Personnel – Buddy Nix Vice President of Football Operations – Ed McGuire Director of College Scouting – Jimmy Raye Director of Pro Scouting – Fran Foley Head coaches Head Coach – Marty Schottenheimer Offensive coaches Offensive Coordinator – Cam Cameron Quarterbacks – Brian Schottenheimer Running Backs – Clarence Shelmon Wide Receivers – James Lofton Tight Ends – Tim Brewster Offensive Line – Hudson Houck Offensive Assistant/Quality Control – Pete Carmichael, Jr.			Defensive coaches Defensive Coordinator – Dale Lindsey Defensive Line – Wayne Nunnely Linebackers – Greg Manusky Defensive Backs – Jerry Holmes Defensive Assistant/Quality Control – John Pagano Special teams coaches Special Teams – Steve Crosby Strength and conditioning Strength and Conditioning – Dave Redding Assistant Strength and Conditioning – Matt Schiotz

[1]

Roster

2003 San Diego Chargers final roster

	Quarterbacks  9 Drew Brees  7 Doug Flutie Running backs 24 Jesse Chatman 35 Leon Johnson KR/PR 41 Lorenzo Neal FB 34 Andrew Pinnock FB 21 LaDainian Tomlinson Wide receivers 89 David Boston 82 Reche Caldwell 87 Tim Dwight 10 Dondre Gilliam 86 Grant Mattos 81 Kassim Osgood 88 Eric Parker Tight ends 80 Stephen Alexander 85 Antonio Gates 84 Justin Peelle 83 Josh Norman		Offensive linemen 60 Jason Ball C 64 Phil Bogle G 67 Kevin Breedlove 68 Kris Dielman G 63 Kelvin Garmon G 61 Michael Keathley G 77 Damion McIntosh T 66 Cory Raymer C 79 Solomon Page T 73 Courtney Van Buren T Defensive linemen 74 Jacques Cesaire DE 90 Adrian Dingle DE 92 Jason Fisk DT 99 Raylee Johnson DE 75 Marcellus Wiley DE 76 Jamal Williams NT 78 DeQuincy Scott DT		Linebackers 54 Stephen Cooper ILB 59 Donnie Edwards OLB 51 Ben Leber OLB 52 Carlos Polk ILB 56 Matt Wilhelm ILB 57 Zeke Moreno ILB Defensive backs 22 Sammy Davis CB 29 Drayton Florence CB 36 Vernon Fox SS 32 Kevin House 23 Quentin Jammer CB 48 Terrence Kiel SS 34 Tony Okanlawon CB 20 Jerry Wilson FS Special teams  2 Darren Bennett P 50 David Binn LS  8 Steve Christie K  5 Mike Scifres P		Reserve lists 69 Ed Ellis T (IR) 42 Kwamie Lassiter S (IR) 31 Hanik Milligan S (IR) 95 Joe Salave'a DT (IR) 71 Toniu Fonoti G (IR) Practice squad  4 Mackenzie Hoambrecker K 17 Cleo Lemon QB Rookies in italics active, inactive, practice squad

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.[2] The Chargers played the Tennessee Titans only once during this period[3] (in 1998) but played the Bengals five times[4] 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.[5]

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.[6]

Week	Date	Opponent	Result	Record	Kickoff Time	Attendance
1	September 7, 2003	at Kansas City Chiefs	L 14–27	0–1	CBS 10:00am	78,048
2	September 14, 2003	Denver Broncos	L 37–13	0–2	CBS 1:15pm	65,445
3	September 21, 2003	Baltimore Ravens	L 24–10	0–3	CBS 1:15pm	52,028
4	September 28, 2003	at Oakland Raiders	L 34–31	0–4	CBS 1:05pm	54,078
5	October 5, 2003	at Jacksonville Jaguars	L 27–21	0–5	CBS 1:05pm	48,954
6	Bye
7	October 19, 2003	at Cleveland Browns	W 26–20	1–5	CBS 10:00am	73,238
8	October 27, 2003	Miami Dolphins	L 26–10	1–6	ABC 6:00pm	73,014
9	November 2, 2003	at Chicago Bears	L 20–7	1–7	CBS 10:00am	61,500
10	November 9, 2003	Minnesota Vikings	W 42–28	2–7	FOX 1:05pm	64,738
11	November 16, 2003	at Denver Broncos	L 37–8	2–8	CBS 1:05pm	75,217
12	November 23, 2003	Cincinnati Bengals	L 34–27	2–9	CBS 1:15pm	52,069
13	November 30, 2003	Kansas City Chiefs	L 28–24	2–10	CBS 1:15pm	57,671
14	December 7, 2003	at Detroit Lions	W 14–7	3–10	CBS 10:00am	61,544
15	December 14, 2003	Green Bay Packers	L 38–21	3–11	FOX 1:15pm	64,978
16	December 21, 2003	at Pittsburgh Steelers	L 40–24	3–12	CBS 1:05pm	52,527
17	December 28, 2003	Oakland Raiders	W 21–14	4–12	CBS 1:15pm	62,222

Standings

AFC West
	W	L	T	PCT	DIV	CONF	PF	PA	STK
^(2) Kansas City Chiefs	13	3	0	.813	5–1	10–2	484	332	W1
^(6) Denver Broncos	10	6	0	.625	5–1	9–3	381	301	L1
Oakland Raiders	4	12	0	.250	1–5	3–9	270	379	L2
San Diego Chargers	4	12	0	.250	1–5	2–10	313	441	W1

References

1. 2012 San Diego Chargers Media Guide. pp. 263–264. Archived from the original on October 15, 2014. Retrieved October 28, 2014.
2. History of the NFL’s Structure and Formats, Part Two
3. San Diego Chargers v Tennessee Titans/Houston Oilers
4. San Diego Chargers v Cincinnati Bengals
5. Arizona Cardinals v New York Jets
6. Dillon, Jeff (October 26, 2003). "Week of Fire -- Fire crews battle to limit damage from raging wildfires". The San Diego Union-Tribune. Archived from the original on September 7, 2008. Retrieved September 5, 2016.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)