Chargers sign DT Christian Covington

The Chargers weren’t done adding players in free agency after all.

On Monday morning, former Texans beat writer Aaron Wilson reported that former Bengals and Texans defensive tackle Christian Covington is signing with the Chargers. Covington started 14 games for Cincinnati in 2020 where he finished with a career-high 39 total tackles.

Originally a sixth-round pick out of Rice by the Texans, Covington served in a backup role for Houston through his four years with the team. He saw time in 50 total games with nine starts. During that time he recorded 7.5 sacks and 11 tackles-for-loss.

After the Texans didn’t re-sign him following the 2018 season, Covington spent a lone year in 2019 with the Cowboys. He started six games and finished with 28 tackles, four tackles-for-loss, and a single sack.

Covington signed a $1.5 million deal with the Broncos ahead of the 2020 season but was dealt in a trade to Cincy for linebacker Austin Calitro.

The immediate outlook for Covington with the Chargers is that he’ll provide immediate depth along the interior of the defensive line. It remains to be seen if the defense will fully-transition to a 3-4 front but if they do, the team needed this signing to help fill out a defensive line group that’s fairly shallow past the immediate starting three of Jerry Tillery, Justin Jones, and Linval Joseph.

If his contract remains in that one-year, $1.5 million range, the Bolts may still have enough money to address another need (nose tackle, free safety) ahead of training camp.