San Diego Chargers: Important Dates for 2012

by John Gennaro on Jan 26, 2012 12:26 PM PST in San Diego Chargers Offseason

San Diego Chargers wide receiver Vincent Jackson smiles during the AFC practice for the NFL football Pro Bowl. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)

We are now under a month away from the NFL Combine and less than two months away from the start of free agency in this NFL offseason.

This weekend there will be two games to keep your eyes on and next weekend we'll all sit down to watch the year's best commercials interrupted by some football.

What about after that? Well, we have you covered with a list of all of the dates (approximate dates for those that haven't been announced specifically yet) that you'll need to know as we count down to September 6th (the start of the 2012 NFL season) after the jump.

Jan. 28 - Senior Bowl (1 p.m., NFL Network)

Jan. 29 - 2012 NFL Pro Bowl (4 p.m., NBC)

Feb. 5 - Super Bowl XLVI (3:25 p.m., NBC)

Feb. 20 - Teams can begin applying franchise and transition tags to players

Feb. 22-28 - NFL Combine (live coverage on NFL Network and NFL.com)

March 5 - Deadline for teams to apply franchise and transition tags

March 13 - Free agency begins at 1 p.m.

March 25-28 - NFL owners meetings (in Palm Beach, FL)

March 30-31 - Super Regional Combine (at Ford Field)

Mid-April - Chargers' offseason program begins (they can hold a maximum of 10 OTAs during the offseason)

Late April - 2012 NFL schedule is announced

April 26 - First round of 2012 NFL Draft (Chargers will pick 18th)

April 27 - Second and third rounds of 2012 NFL Draft

April 28 - Rounds 4-7 of 2012 NFL Draft

Late July - Training camps across the league begin

Early August - 2012 preseason begins

Sept. 6 - 2012 NFL regular season begins at stadium of Super Bowl champion

(All times Pacific)

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Dec. 31

Miss playoffs and retain Norv Turner and A.J. Smith as a result.

I have the Sons of Westwood on my iPod in my "favorites" playlist ...

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by johnvely on Jan 26, 2012 12:55 PM PST reply actions

I find it strange

that in the NFL free agency starts well over a month after the Super Bowl, while in baseball it’s very soon after the World Series.

A pirate I was meant to be!
"You say you're nasty pirates,
scheming, thieving, bad bushwackers?
From what I've seen I tell you
You're not pirates, you're just slackers!"

by Zach (maestro876) on Jan 26, 2012 12:56 PM PST reply actions

football requires recovery time

Don't get excited when it's Wheelie time...
Bolts from the Blue
Join my 4,554 other followers on twitter. @poyzinous

by Superduperboltman on Jan 26, 2012 1:07 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs

Why would that impact contract negotiations?

A pirate I was meant to be!
"You say you're nasty pirates,
scheming, thieving, bad bushwackers?
From what I've seen I tell you
You're not pirates, you're just slackers!"

by Zach (maestro876) on Jan 26, 2012 2:30 PM PST up reply actions

you dont know that they'll fully recover until they have fully recovered.

look at manning right now he’d be a great pickup if he returns healthy but we don’t know if he will.

by bstew95 on Jan 26, 2012 2:55 PM PST up reply actions

Probably mattered for Brees

If his recovery had been more of a sure thing at the time he probably would have had even more interest than he did. Signing a guy coming off an injury is always a risk and having more time to monitor and evaluate a potential recovery would be an advantage.

The other thing is that the baseball draft is during baseball season, and when you are picking 50 players and only really expecting a few to pan out its not quite the same when evaluating your current talent and available FA’s. In the NFL Free agency and the draft are more closely linked, so I bet teams want time to take stock of the current draft class and decide what needs they can fill

by CABurrito on Jan 26, 2012 3:04 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs