After four seasons with the Dallas Cowboys, defensive lineman Chris Canty is leaving town but staying in the NFC East: Canty has agreed to a free-agent contract with the New York Giants.
The Giants have signed soon to be defensive tackle Chris Canty to a 6 year, 42 million dollar contract with 17.25 million guaranteed. Expensive for sure, but consider.
The 6-foot-7, 304-pound Canty played end in the Cowboys' 3-4 defense, but he'll probably play tackle for the Giants. That makes Canty the second defensive tackle the Giants have added this weekend; they previously signed former Seahawk Rocky Bernard to a four-year, $16 million deal.
Canty was a fourth-round draft pick of the Cowboys in 2005, and after spending most of his rookie year as a backup, he has started all 16 games in each of the past three seasons in Dallas. It was clear before the start of free agency that Canty was going to be too expensive for the Cowboys, and the Packers and Seahawks were thought to be interested in his services. But New York was the high bidder, and now Canty is a Giant.
Chris Canty is 26. He turned 26 a day after week 10 of the NFL season. That means for practical purposes, 2008 was Canty's age 25 season and 2009 is Canty's age 26 season. New York is guaranteed three to five seasons of Canty in his absolute athletic prime.
Canty was considered a first round talent with major durability issues. He suffered a detached retina after being hit by a bottle in a bar fight. Canty claimed to be a bystander and given his rock solid character profile, it's fair to say he was and that Canty comes with no Plaxico Burress/Ken Hamlin nightlife red flags. Canty also suffered a whopper of a knee injury, tearing his ACL, MCL and PCL. Injuries like that can damage cartilage and effectively end a career. That was four years and fifty consecutive starts ago.
I wouldn't support Seattle making this move, but the difference between signing Canty and Colin Cole is the difference between overpaying a non-marquee player entering his prime and overpaying a replacement level player exiting it.
