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| Residents of San Diego should be seeing this car on their streets for the next two seasons. |
While Antonio Garay won't be confused anytime soon as a star defensive tackle (though he was No. 4 on our list of DT free agents), he's done good work in San Diego the past two seasons, combining for 105 tackles and eight sacks.
On Thursday, he was rewarded for that production, signing a two-year deal to remain with the Chargers.
It's a nice reward for Garay, who entered the league as a sixth-round pick of the Browns and then didn't do much of anything his first five seasons in the league. But he caught a new life in 2010, and though his stats weren't quite as impressive last season (however, according to Pro Football Focus, the percentage of snaps he played rose to 53.4 percent from 46.7 in 2010) he's proven he's a reliable tackle.
As PFF writes, Garay "is very much an explosive, penetrating lineman who is at his best attacking one gap and getting up field. He's not as strong as a player like Brodrick Bunkley, but has a quicker first step that means he's more of a nuisance to quarterbacks."
But there is one area of concern. Namely that Garay looked fatigued toward the end of last season, leading observers to wonder if the extra workload he's taken on in the past couple seasons (he played less than five percent of the team's snaps in 2009) is sapping too much of his energy.
The fact Garay will turn 33 years old next season also probably played a factor in the Chargers feeling comfortable only with a deal for the next two years.
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