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Free Agency 2013: How Much Money Do the San Diego Chargers Have?

Do the Chargers have enough money to make a real play for any free agents this offseason?

Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

We've been talking a lot about what the San Diego Chargers should do in free agency for weeks now, but we've yet to really address how much money the Chargers will have to play with when free agency begins.

You can click here to see it broken down, but if all you're looking for is cap space the number is $6,795,558. It's important to note that this is an estimate from Spotrac and that the official numbers aren't really listed anywhere.

That number includes less than $1 million in cap space carried over from 2012. In A.J. Smith's final year as General Manager of the Chargers, he used every last penny he could to try and field a team that was good enough to help him keep his job. That makes Tom Telesco's job a little bit more difficult as he tries to add free agents this season.

That number also doesn't include any cap savings that could be had if the Chargers were to cut any players on the current roster.

So, what does $6.8 million get you in the free agent market? Well, signing bonuses can be used as a way to decrease the cap hit in the first year of new contracts. As an example, Jared Gaither's cap hit was just $2.6 million in 2012 and jumps up to $6.5 million in 2013. All things considered, that 2013 cap space is probably enough for two or three free agents to be added this offseason.