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NFL Free Agency Kick–Off

With Free Agency underway, we'll know soon enough if Vincent Jackson will still be wearing Chargers colors in the future. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
With Free Agency underway, we'll know soon enough if Vincent Jackson will still be wearing Chargers colors in the future. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
Getty Images

It's 1pm Pacific Time (or later) and NFL Free Agency has started. Actually, it already started since teams already knew which players would be free agents and who their agents are. However, by league rules nobody whose contract expired after the 2011 season could put pen to paper on a new contract until now.

Feel free to use the comments section as a place to make any comments about free agency. The staff at Bolts From The Blue will add new posts for each signing the Chargers make as the news becomes (mostly) official.

Here are some of the pre-deadline happenings of the day: The Chargers released LT Marcus McNeill as well as CB Dante Hughes, OLB Everette Brown, LB Nate Triplett and WR Bryan Walters. C Nick Hardwick was re-signed to a 3 year deal. OT Brandyn Dombrowski was offered a restricted free agent tender. TE Kory Sperry was not offered a restricted free agent tender and will become a free agent. Former Charger WR/ST Kassim Osgood was released by the Jacksonville Jaguars. Saints WR Marques Colston re-signed with New Orleans and Dolphins WR Brandon Marshall was traded to the Bears. Both of those WR affect the market for Vincent Jackson.

For a refresher on Chargers free agents, here's the list:

Player Position FA Year FA Type
Brandyn Dombrowski OT 2012 R
Everette Brown OLB 2012 U
Luis Castillo DE 2012 U
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
Tommie Harris DT 2012 U
Jacob Hester FB 2012 U
Player Position FA Year FA Type
Dante Hughes CB 2012 U
Vincent Jackson WR 2012 U
Randy McMichael TE 2012 U
Marcus McNeill LT 2012 U
Tony Moll OG 2012 U
Scott Mruczkowski C 2012 U
Paul Oliver S 2012 U
Kory Sperry TE 2012 U
Mike Tolbert RB 2012 U
Nate Triplett LB 2012 U
Bryan Walters WR 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
Ricky Elmore OLB 2013 E
DeAndre McDaniel S 2013 E
Nick Polk S 2013 E
Curtis Brinkley RB 2013 R
Richard Goodman WR 2013 R
Mike Windt LS 2013 R
Antwan Barnes OLB 2013 U
Jacques Cesaire DE 2013 U
Antoine Cason CB 2013 U
Malcom Floyd WR 2013 U
Tyronne Green G 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
Demorrio Williams ILB 2013 U
Colin Baxter C 2014 R
Bront Bird ILB 2014 R
Darryl Gamble OLB 2014 R
Donald Butler ILB 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
Nick Hardwick C 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
Philip Rivers QB 2016 U
Eric Weddle S 2016 U
Mike Scifres P 2017 U

All contract data used was researched using Rotoworld.com.