He wasn’t on Scouts Inc’s draft board. He wasn’t on Mel Kiper’s or Todd McShay’s. But he was on the San Diego Charger’s radar. UWO defensive tackle Vaughn Martin was drafted by the San Diego Chargers in the fourth round at 113th overall.

Besides the Chargers, there were quite a few teams interested in Vaughn. At first, it looked like Martin would end up in Green Bay. However, that notion was squashed quickly when the Packers took defensive tackle B.J. Raji (from Boston College) in the first round with the ninth pick. Like Vaughn, he fits in best in the 3-4 defensive scheme and is rated as the best run-stopper in the draft.  The Colts brought in Martin for a workout but traded for a second round pick and selected DT Fili Moala (from USC). Carolina also worked Martin out but opted for Corvey Irvin of Georgia in the third round. St. Louis also looked hard at Martin before drafting Clemson’s Dorell Scott earlier in the fourth round. Miami and Cleveland were also confirmed to have brought Martin in for a workout but had not drafted a defensive tackle by the time the fourth round rolled around.

I know I caught a lot of flak by saying that Martin wouldn’t be drafted this year. As I noted off the top, I wasn’t the only one that thought that. If you asked me next year, I would have ranked him as a mid-round pick right from the time he declared. I would like to thank D.J. Bennett from The Score television network for quoting me on Vaughn’s pre-draft profile piece they broadcast. He mentioned that part of my blog where I said Vaughn wasn’t the best tackle in Ontario, let alone Canada. Not that he gave me or the blog credit for that line, just a generic “some people are saying” type line.

Anyway, congratulations to Vaughn for getting drafted by the Chargers.  UWO’s loss is San Diego’s gain.  We’ll be keeping a close eye on him as he tries to make the team.

So, who’s in line for one of these jerseys?