Big moves give Chargers chance to bolt from the blues.(San Diego Chargers looks to be much improved)

They are doing handstands, cartwheels and back flips in San Diego for a team that was 1-15 last season. And they are neither practicing their gymnastic floor routines nor trying to appear mentally unfit to stand trial.

Southern Californians are showing their enthusiasm because the Chargers may be the most improved team in the NFL. Certainly the Chargers have had the most productive offseason, making marked improvements on more levels of their organization than any other team.

"I would certainly think they would be much, much improved," says Carl Peterson, the president and general manager of the Chiefs. "They're going to make a real big move."

For this, the Chargers can thank Jimmy Johnson, the former coach of the Cowboys and Dolphins. Regarded as an unbiased source by Chargers president Dean Spanos, Johnson told Spanos over the course of a half-dozen phone conversations and two meetings in the Florida Keys that the team needed to get the best possible general manager while retaining coach Mike Riley.

Three months later, John Butler makes a U-turn in his red Durango on the way back from lunch. Butler's stomach is full, the window is down, the sun is shining and the oldies are blaring. He takes a long drag on a Winston. Life is good.

The vehicle isn't all that has changed directions at the hands of the Chargers' new general manager.

For someone who walks, talks and even eats slowly, Butler sure has moved last since leaving Buffalo for San Diego. Norv Turner, Doug Flutie, Drew Brees, LaDainian Tomlinson, Marcellus Wiley, Ryan McNeil, Alex Molden, Tim Dwight, Wade Richey. He chuckles at the magnitude of it. "I wanted to fill holes on this team," Butler says. "The future is now, kiddo."