Patriots interested in big defensive lineman Vaughn Martin

I've maintained since the Patriots season ended that the fix for the defense was on the line, not in the secondary. Some of the free-agents I wanted the Patriots to sign the most were Desmond Bryant, Dwight Freeney, John Abaraham, Osi Umenyiora, etc. The Patriots had reported interest in all of those players, except Umenyiora. Also, those guys all still available except for the one defensive tackle on that list, Bryant, who went to the Browns.

So, it's no surprise that the Patriots are in on another big lineman, Vaughn Martin, formerly of the Chargers.

Pro Football Talk:

According to La Canfora, the Chargers will have a fair amount of competition for Martin’s services. The Eagles, Saints, Lions and Patriots are also believed to be interested in adding him to their defensive line rotations. All of those teams play out of a 3-4 base except for the Lions and Martin’s experienced in that look after his run with the Chargers.

How big is Martin? He's listed as 6-3 and 331 pounds. That's bigger than Vince Wilfork.

He wouldn't be the pass rushing defensive tackle the Patriots so desperately want to have next to Wilfork, but he'd provide some much needed depth on that defensive line. As noted above by Josh Alper of PFT, the Chargers are trying to retain Martin and there's a littany of teams also keeping tabs on him.

When I see a list of four or more teams interested in a player, I usually count the Patriots out. They are not a team to usually get in a bidding war. They have a limited amount of cap space left, and while Martin would be nice, I'd rather see them sign Abraham or Freeney and try to retain Vollmer or go after Eric Winston. If that scenario unfolds, I wouldn't mind seeing them use their first round pick on a DT.