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With yesterday's Super Bowl, the 2011 season is basically wrapped up. However, the 2012 season doesn't start until March 13. They call that the start of the new league year and it also represents the date when free agents are free to sign with any team. So, why start talking about free agents over a month before? Well, the teams can use this month to re-sign potential free agents or even players that will go into 2012 with only 1 year remaining on their contracts. There's also the potential for a franchise tag, which I discussed a few weeks ago.
The San Diego Chargers will go into this 2012 offseason with two former Pro Bowlers, a special teams captain and a player that scored 7 of the team's 41 touchdowns heading to free agency. Vincent Jackson, Nick Hardwick, Jacob Hester and Mike Tolbert head the list of Chargers looking for new contracts. Over the next few weeks we'll discuss the merits of keeping some of the players. The complete list is show below:
| Player | Position | FA Year | FA Type |
| Curtis Brinkley | RB | 2012 | R |
| Brandyn Dombrowski | T | 2012 | R |
| Kory Sperry | TE | 2012 | R |
| Stephen Cooper | ILB | 2012 | U |
| Patrick Crayton | WR | 2012 | U |
| Na'il Diggs | ILB | 2012 | U |
| Jared Gaither | OT | 2012 | U |
| Antonio Garay | DT | 2012 | U |
| Steve Gregory | S | 2012 | U |
| Nick Hardwick | C | 2012 | U |
| Tommie Harris | DT | 2012 | U |
| Jacob Hester | FB | 2012 | U |
| Vincent Jackson | WR | 2012 | U |
| Randy McMichael | TE | 2012 | U |
| Tony Moll | OG | 2012 | U |
| Scott Mruczkowski | C | 2012 | U |
| Paul Oliver | S | 2012 | U |
| Mike Tolbert | RB | 2012 | U |
| Key | ||
| FA Status | Abbreviation | Description |
| Exclusive Rights Free Agent | E | Player can only sign with previous club unless they are not tendered an offer. |
| Restricted Free Agent | R | Player can be tendered an offer by previous club. That tender will determine the amount of compensation (draft picks) required for another team to sign the player. For the 2011 offseason, these players are essentially treated like Exclusive Rights Free Agents. They are not able to sign with other teams and must either accept their tender or hold out |
| Unrestricted Free Agent | U | Player is free to sign with any other team without compensation to the previous club. The only exception occurs if the franchise tag is placed on the player. |
After the jump you can see when the rest of the Chargers' contracts expire.
The 2013 FA Year players are probably the most interesting of the remaining players on this list. Some of these players the Chargers will let walk and therefore need to think about drafting their replacements. Others might be guys who signed 2 year deals last offseason, but didn't meet expectations and could be cut early in the offseason and become free agents earlier than expected. I mentioned the merits of cutting or keeping some of these players in a recent article.
| Player | Position | FA Year | FA Type |
| Richard Goodman | WR | 2012 | E |
| Mike Windt | LS | 2012 | E |
| Nick Polk | S | 2013 | E |
| Nate Triplett | LB | 2013 | E |
| Bryan Walters | WR | 2013 | E |
| Antwan Barnes | OLB | 2013 | U |
| Everette Brown | OLB | 2013 | U |
| Jacques Cesaire | DE | 2013 | U |
| Antoine Cason | CB | 2013 | U |
| Kris Dielman | LG | 2013 | U |
| Malcom Floyd | WR | 2013 | U |
| Tyronne Green | G | 2013 | U |
| Dante Hughes | CB | 2013 | U |
| Quentin Jammer | CB | 2013 | U |
| Nate Kaeding | K | 2013 | U |
| Travis LaBoy | OLB | 2013 | U |
| Vaughn Martin | DE | 2013 | U |
| Nick Novak | K | 2013 | U |
| Shaun Phillips | OLB | 2013 | U |
| Louis Vasquez | RG | 2013 | U |
| Billy Volek | QB | 2013 | U |
| Colin Baxter | C | 2014 | R |
| Bront Bird | ILB | 2014 | R |
| Darryl Gamble | OLB | 2014 | R |
| Donald Butler | ILB | 2014 | U |
| Luis Castillo | DE | 2014 | U |
| Larry English | OLB | 2014 | U |
| Takeo Spikes | ILB | 2014 | U |
| Darrell Stuckey | S | 2014 | U |
| Cam Thomas | DT | 2014 | U |
| Vincent Brown | WR | 2015 | U |
| Jeromey Clary | T | 2015 | U |
| Andrew Gachkar | ILB | 2015 | U |
| Marcus Gilchrist | CB | 2015 | U |
| Corey Liuget | DE | 2015 | U |
| Ryan Mathews | RB | 2015 | U |
| Stephen Schilling | OG | 2015 | U |
| Shareece Wright | CB | 2015 | U |
| Antonio Gates | TE | 2016 | U |
| Marcus McNeill | LT | 2016 | U |
| Philip Rivers | QB | 2016 | U |
| Eric Weddle | S | 2016 | U |
| Mike Scifres | P | 2017 | U |
All contract data used was researched using Rotoworld.com.