The San Diego Chargers were in desperate need for a left tackle after dealing with Jared Gaither last season and missing out on all the top choices in the NFL draft last month in Eric Fisher, Luke Joeckel and Lane Johnson, but after a long wait the team got their man in former Steelers lineman Max Starks.
According to ESPN.com, Starks has agreed to a one-year deal with the team after spending his career with the Pittsburgh Steelers for nine seasons. Starks has been a consistent player for the Steelers for the majority of his career and last season he started every game for the team. The Chargers have tried to overhaul their offensive line under new head coach Mike McCoy and Starks is expected to start opposite first round draft pick DJ Fluker from Alabama on the offensive line. King Dunlap will be his main competition, but based on experience it's Starks's job to lose.
Starks and Fluker could greatly help the play of Philip Rivers, who was constantly on the run last season and was sacked a ton of times for the Chargers under Norv Turner. Rivers ended up with solid number of 3,606 yards passing and 26 touchdowns, but he also had 15 touchdowns and 15 fumbles and part of that was due to the inconsistent play of the offensive line.
Starks was very successful while blocking for Ben Roethlisberger and he played every snap for the team last season, but coach Mike Tomlin wanted to get younger on the line, making him expendable. The Chargers greatly needed to upgrade the line after ranking 24th in passing yards per game and 27th in rushing yards per game and the additions of Starks and Fluker will drastically give the team a better duo than last year.
