2001 San Diego Chargers season

2001 San Diego Chargers season
Head coach Mike Riley
General manager John Butler
Owner Alex Spanos
Home field Qualcomm Stadium
Results
Record 5–11
Division place 5th AFC West
Playoff finish did not qualify

The 2001 San Diego Chargers season began with the team trying to improve on their 1–15 record in 2000. It was Mike Riley's final season as the teams head coach. At the end of the season running back LaDainian Tomlinson won the Offensive Rookie of the Year award. Despite finishing 5-11 after losing their final nine games of the season, eight of the Chargers' losses were by less than a touchdown and five of them were by three points.

Offseason

Becoming the "Bills West"

In December 2000, Buffalo Bills owner Ralph Wilson fired his general manager, John Butler, and his entire staff. The Chargers immediately signed Butler, and within weeks, Butler had lured several recognizable names from the 2000 Bills team: defensive end Marcellus Wiley, linebackers Sam Rogers and John Holecek, kicker Steve Christie and most notably, quarterback Doug Flutie, who had been cut by the Bills in a bitter quarterback controversy involving Rob Johnson. With so many former Bills connections, the team was often referred to as the Bills West.[1][2] (See also the 1995 Carolina Panthers season, in which Bill Polian brought several Bills contributors from the team's Super Bowl era to Carolina in its inaugural year of play.)

As such, the October 28 matchup between the Bills and Chargers in San Diego was heavily promoted as a dual grudge match, not just between Johnson and Flutie, but also between Wilson and Butler, with Wilson having been quoted as wanting to win the Chargers game more than the Super Bowl.[1] Despite the fact that the Bills were having a very bad season, and the Chargers' fortunes (at the time) had turned significantly, the game was very competitive, coming down to the final minutes play. Trailing 24–20, Flutie scrambled 13 yards to put the Chargers up 27–24; when kicker Jake Arians attempted a 44-yard field goal to tie the game, it was blocked.[3] The Chargers, then 5–2, would not win another game the entire season, going 0–9 in the remaining nine games.

NFL Draft

Michael Vick was selected in the 2001 NFL Draft as the first overall pick and first African American quarterback taken number 1 in the NFL Draft. The San Diego Chargers had the number one selection spot in the draft that year but traded the rights to the first overall choice to the Atlanta Falcons a day before the draft, for which they received the Falcons' first round pick (5th overall) and third round pick in 2001 (used to draft CB Tay Cody), a second round pick in 2002 (used to draft WR Reche Caldwell) and WR/KR Tim Dwight.[4] With the Chargers' downgraded spot (the 5th overall), they selected Texas Christian University running back LaDainian Tomlinson, who went on to become league MVP in 2006 .[5] Although Vick has never become league MVP, he finished second in voting in 2004.[6] In this way, Tomlinson and Vick are linked as having been "traded" for each other, although the transaction was actually the result of traded draft picks and contract negotiations. The Chargers' other notable draft pick was Drew Brees, who would eventually win Super Bowl XLIV as a member of the Saints.

draft
Round Pick Player Position College Notes
1 5 LaDainian Tomlinson *  RB TCU Pick from ATL
2 31 Drew Brees *  QB Purdue
3 67 Tay Cody  CB Florida St Pick from ATL
4 112 Carlos Polk  LB Nebraska Pick from PIT
5 Elliot Silvers  OT Washington
      Made roster    †   Pro Football Hall of Fame    *   Made at least one Pro Bowl during career

Personnel

Staff

2001 San Diego Chargers staff
Front office
  • Chairman of the Board – Alex Spanos
  • President/Chief Executive Officer – Dean Spanos
  • Executive Vice President – Michael Spanos
  • Executive Vice President/General Manager – John Butler
  • Assistant General Manager/Director of Pro Personnel – A. J. Smith
  • Vice President of Football Operations – Ed McGuire
  • Director of Player Personnel – Buddy Nix
  • Director of College Scouting – Jimmy Raye

Head coaches

Offensive coaches

 Defensive coaches

Special teams coaches

  • Special Teams – Bruce Read
  • Special Teams Assistant/Quality Control – Craig Dickenson

Strength and conditioning

  • Strength and Conditioning – John Hastings
  • Assistant Strength and Conditioning – Mike Schleelein

Roster

2001 San Diego Chargers final roster
Quarterbacks

Running backs

Wide receivers

Tight ends

 Offensive linemen

Defensive linemen

 Linebackers

Defensive backs

Special teams

 Reserve lists



Practice squad



Rookies in italics
 53 Active, 5 Inactive, 5 Practice squad

Regular season

Schedule

Week Date Opponent Result Network TV Time (PT) Attendance
1 September 9, 2001 Washington Redskins W 30–3 FOX 1:00pm
60,629
2 September 23, 2001 at Dallas Cowboys W 32–21 CBS 10:00am
63,430
3 September 30, 2001 Cincinnati Bengals W 28–14 CBS 1:00pm
56,048
4 October 7, 2001 at Cleveland Browns L 20–16 CBS 10:00am
73,018
5 October 14, 2001 at New England Patriots L 29–26 CBS 10:00am
60,292
6 October 21, 2001 Denver Broncos W 27–10 CBS 1:00pm
67,521
7 October 28, 2001 Buffalo Bills W 27–24 CBS 1:00pm
63,698
8 November 4, 2001 Kansas City Chiefs L 25–20 CBS 1:00pm
58,789
9 November 11, 2001 at Denver Broncos L 26–16 CBS 1:00pm
74,951
10 November 18, 2001 at Oakland Raiders L 34–24 CBS 1:00pm
61,960
11 November 25, 2001 Arizona Cardinals L 20–17 FOX 1:00pm
49,398
12 December 2, 2001 at Seattle Seahawks L 13–10 CBS 1:00pm
55,466
13 December 9, 2001 at Philadelphia Eagles L 24–14 CBS 10:00am
65,438
14 December 15, 2001 Oakland Raiders L 13–6 CBS 1:00pm
67,349
15 December 23, 2001 at Kansas City Chiefs L 20–17 CBS 10:00am
76,131
16 December 30, 2001 Seattle Seahawks L 25–22 CBS 1:00pm
51,412

Game summaries

Week 7

1 234Total
Bills 0 10014 24
• Chargers 10 3014 27

[7]

Standings

AFC West
W L T PCT PF PA STK
(3) Oakland Raiders 1060.625399327L3
Seattle Seahawks 970.563301324W2
Denver Broncos 880.500340339L1
Kansas City Chiefs 6100.375320344L1
San Diego Chargers 5110.313332321L9

References

  1. 1 2 Roth, Leo. Bills East vs. Bills West. Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. October 23, 2001.
  2. ↑ Banks, Don. AFC is where all the action is lately. SI.com. October 19, 2001.
  3. ↑ Flutie works his magic – again – to beat Bills 27–24. Associated Press. October 28, 2001.
  4. ↑ ESPN – Chargers big winner in different draft-day deal – NFL
  5. ↑ NFL Most Valuable Players – NFL MVP Player of the Year
  6. ↑ Barry Wilner (January 11, 2005). "Manning NFL MVP again: 49 TDs, passing rating of 121.1 make Colts QB near-unanimous pick". The Decatur Daily. Retrieved May 23, 2007.
  7. ↑ Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved 2014-Oct-19.
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