San Diego Chargers Rallied Ferociously After Starting Season 0-4

Published on December 13th, 2024 11:18 am EST
Written By: Dave Manuel


Imagine this scenario.

Your NFL franchise has missed the playoffs for nine straight years.

Your NFL franchise has had four consecutive losing seasons.

Your NFL franchise finished 4-12 the previous season.

Your NFL franchise loses their starting quarterback at the start of the season.

Your NFL franchise starts the season with a record of 0-4.

What do you think would be the odds that this team would end up making the playoffs? 1000/1? 10,000/1?

This is exactly what happened with the 1992 San Diego Chargers, who remain the ONLY franchise in NFL history to ever make the playoffs after starting the year 0-4.

The Chargers got off to a rough start in 1992 as they lost their starting quarterback, John Friesz, in the preseason.

The Chargers brought in Stan Humphries to be his replacement and things got off to a rocky start, as the Chargers lost four straight games to start the year. None of the four losses were particularly close, as the Chargers dropped games by scores of 24-10, 21-13, 23-6 and 27-0. The Chargers were bottoming out, but at least they would get a high draft pick for the next season.

Unbelievably, the Chargers would start winning, led by the likes of Humphries and Junior Seau. With wins over the Seahawks, Colts (x2) and Broncos, the Chargers were suddenly 4-4.

After dropping a close game to the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 10, the Chargers proceeded to run the table, finishing with a record of 11-5.

To make things even better, the Chargers managed to win a home playoff game as well, beating the Chiefs by a score of 17-0.

-

Stan Humphries was more than adequate in his role as back-up quarterback, as he threw for 3,356 yards, 16 TDs and 18 INTs in his 15 starts.

The team's turnaround, however, was really keyed by the defense, which terrorized the opposing quarterbacks. The Chargers had two players finish in the top 5 of DPOY voting - Leslie O'Neal and Junior Seau - and had three Pro Bowlers on defense.

Junior Seau was a nightmare for opposing running backs to deal with, while Leslie O'Neal got to the quarterbacks for a total of 17 sacks.

-

It's nearly impossible for a 0-4 team to make the NFL playoffs, as there is practically zero margin for error.

The 1992 San Diego Chargers, however, managed to pull off the Herculean feat, and remain the only team to have ever done so.