Grice cut dl to be added soon

[Bolt-O]

Aubrayo Franklin leaves Chargers
March, 19, 2013

By Bill Williamson | ESPN.com

Former San Diego defensive tackle Aubrayo Franklin signed with the Indianapolis Colts on Tuesday.

Franklin played in 12 games for the Chargers last season and filled a nice role on the defensive line. The Chargers liked Franklin but they have some young defensive linemen such as Kendall Reyes and Cam Thomas on the line, so Franklin was expendable.

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This was Williamson's opinion. I can't read anything into this other than Franklin was caught in the numbers game, like Mathews, and the team had younger options. 10 yr vets are pretty expensive, even at the minimum.

[Yubaking]

You are seriously confused over the meaning of "outplaying."

No, I am not. I just realize that there are at least two ways that that term could be used. One refers to the winner of a competition and the other refers to an analysis of the two players regardless of the result of the competition. This difference often gets glossed over because in most cases the player that is deemed the winner is the same one that our analysis tells us was the better player.

I have seen both used.

[Bolt-O]

Bolts open to re-signing Aubrayo Franklin
By Michael Gehlken5:31 p.m.March 11, 2013

Nose tackle Aubrayo Franklin is a proven fit in the Chargers defense.

They hope he'll prove that again.

The team has expressed interest in re-signing the veteran, a league source said Monday. Where contract negotiations stand is not known, but Franklin will become an unrestricted free agent if no deal is signed before Tuesday at 1 p.m. PT.

Franklin, 32, spent 2011 in the Saints' 4-3 scheme.

The style didn't play to the run stopper's strengths, and he looked more comfortable absorbing double teams under Chargers defensive coordinator John Pagano's 3-4 system.

Franklin started nine of 12 games, finishing with 20 tackles.

Cam Thomas and Antonio Garay were the other nose tackles on last season's roster. Both are under contract for 2013. Garay, due a $1.5 million roster bonus and $3.5 million base salary, is considered a likely cap casualty.

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This article implies that there was some interest in bringing back Franklin. Yes, no team will say that he's crap and not worth signing just before going into contract negotiations. The numbers weren't right for the Chargers and Franklin.

[Yubaking]

Aubrayo Franklin leaves Chargers
March, 19, 2013

By Bill Williamson | ESPN.com

Former San Diego defensive tackle Aubrayo Franklin signed with the Indianapolis Colts on Tuesday.

Franklin played in 12 games for the Chargers last season and filled a nice role on the defensive line. The Chargers liked Franklin but they have some young defensive linemen such as Kendall Reyes and Cam Thomas on the line, so Franklin was expendable.

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This was Williamson's opinion. I can't read anything into this other than Franklin was caught in the numbers game, like Mathews, and the team had younger options. 10 yr vets are pretty expensive, even at the minimum.

Reyes is not a NT, so Williamson's comments leave something to be desired.

The team (wrongfully) thought Franklin was expendable so they did not pursue him.

[Yubaking]

Bolts open to re-signing Aubrayo Franklin
By Michael Gehlken5:31 p.m.March 11, 2013

Nose tackle Aubrayo Franklin is a proven fit in the Chargers defense.

They hope he'll prove that again.

The team has expressed interest in re-signing the veteran, a league source said Monday. Where contract negotiations stand is not known, but Franklin will become an unrestricted free agent if no deal is signed before Tuesday at 1 p.m. PT.

Franklin, 32, spent 2011 in the Saints' 4-3 scheme.

The style didn't play to the run stopper's strengths, and he looked more comfortable absorbing double teams under Chargers defensive coordinator John Pagano's 3-4 system.

Franklin started nine of 12 games, finishing with 20 tackles.

Cam Thomas and Antonio Garay were the other nose tackles on last season's roster. Both are under contract for 2013. Garay, due a $1.5 million roster bonus and $3.5 million base salary, is considered a likely cap casualty.

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This article implies that there was some interest in bringing back Franklin. Yes, no team will say that he's crap and not worth signing just before going into contract negotiations. The numbers weren't right for the Chargers and Franklin.

Franklin took a little over the veteran minimum to play for the Colts. That tells us that our interest was not all that great.

[Bolt-O]

Franklin took a little over the veteran minimum to play for the Colts. That tells us that our interest was not all that great.

I understand that if you were GM that you would maybe overspend for your cherished ideal NT, but would you have for a 10 yr vested vet who only played 12 games in the previous season? He was effective that season, and may not have been in 2013. Teams have priorities that aren't stated in public, and the Chargers thought that they could develop Thomas. No one was wrong here, future performance is only partially predicted by past performance.

[Yubaking]

Teams sometimes keep players drafted higher than those who play better in preseason, especially if you are comparing a rookie with a vet who had a chance to show himself previously. (Which explains the strange scholarship case for Mouton). I didn't see Nix or RM90 play in preseason, but those who did, like the coaches and fans, imply a disappointing start for Nix, and a pretty good PS for RM90, and fans were surprised that he wasn't kept. Mathews even had a sack against Peyton Manning... who isn't going to play with anything less than first-teamers. I will grant that it may have been due to other factors, but a sack is a sack, just like those clean-up sacks that Phillips used to get here in SD. Not making that Houston DL is not exactly a failure, and someone thought enough of him to bring him to a 53 man squad. I don't know how much of an impact that Mathews will have here in SD, just like we didn't know too much about Lissemore, other than he didn't fit to the Dallas scheme, but its a step in the right direction for SD. Nix is a rookie who can't play all downs, who was traded up for, and could be pretty good, but he couldn't beat out the incumbent NT... who by reports was also outplayed by RM90.

Mathews is not a legitimate NT, just another 3-4 DE conversion, which is what we already have. We don't need our NTs to get sacks. We need them to stop the mother f'ing run, which is exactly what a 300 pound NT typically is not well designed to do. Lissemore is a plus run defender as a 3-4 DE, which allows him to get by at NT versus the run over limited snaps. A lesser run defending 3-4 DE conversion may not have the same level of success that Lissemore has had versus the run. Smaller NTs do not make us more stout up front, which is our biggest issue--teams are just kicking our ass man against man up front and running all over us.

As for the Texans, my understanding (which could be very flawed) is that Powe is the starting NT. He is not the incumbent. Earl Mitchell was their NT and he left via free agency. Rather, Powe was a 6th round draft pick who came over from KC as a free agent for only $645K. Mathews did not beat out him either and there is no reason at all that the team would not have cut Powe if Mathews were all that.

[Yubaking]

I understand that if you were GM that you would maybe overspend for your cherished ideal NT, but would you have for a 10 yr vested vet who only played 12 games in the previous season? He was effective that season, and may not have been in 2013. Teams have priorities that aren't stated in public, and the Chargers thought that they could develop Thomas. No one was wrong here, future performance is only partially predicted by past performance.

I disagree. Telesco screwed the pooch last year with respect to the NT position. He let Garay go, which made sense because he was due to make too much money. Franklin played well for us in 2012, so just leaving the position to an unproven Thomas with no reliable backup was not a sound approach. If Telesco concluded (with zero supporting evidence) that Franklin was done, then he should have brought in a legitimate NT to replace him.

I have no problem with the team getting Lissemore and using him as a 3-4 DE, which is what he actually is. Lissemore was a great acquisition and I would even start him over Reyes. But it would be nice to get a legitimate NT to hold down the fort while we develop one of our own (Geathers, Carrethers).

[Bolt-O]

The Houston defense is more of a classic 3-4 that requires the ideal 335 pound NT, the Chargers are more of a hybrid that uses the 3-4 on early downs, but can bring in the DE's to play DT at times. I want Carruthers to fill that classic NT but he's still raw. Yeah, Houston may have seen more value in Powe and Nix long term, and made Mathews available. Many Houston fans are questioning that decision... just check their boards.

[Bolt-O]

You may not think its proof by that article that the Chargers were interested in bringing back Franklin... he left on his accord because he got a better offer, and maybe he wanted a change in scenery... look at his past travels.

[Yubaking]

Cam Thomas was literally a large problem. He was 330 pounds of terrible until he got replaced by Lissemore. I'd have rather had Franklin starting over Thomas. Franklin was better in 2012 and I'm sure he would have been better than Thomas in 2013.

In the end, losing Franklin didn't hurt us (We probably would have been a Wild Card either way). However, with Franklin on the D at the beginning of the season, we may have had a less stressful Week 17. I think we could have won at least one more of those early games with Franklin instead of Thomas as the starter.

Yea, I know last year was supposedly "re-building," but that, to me, turned out to be untrue. We re-built (for one or part of a season) in some areas, I guess. But, mostly, we're still not a young team, and we're not playing for the future. We can and, I hope, plan to win now. And I thought we could have won last year. One lucky play by the Broncos stopped us from making what I swear would have put us in the AFC Championship game.

Nobody knows what would have happened, but if we could have had a top 10 defense (like we did in 2012) to go with our very good offense, I would have liked our chances to reach the Super Bowl last year. I can't say for sure that Franklin would have made our defense a top 10 defense again in 2013, especially since we were weak against the pass as well, but it would have been better against the run. I have zero doubt about that. It is hard to say exactly (in terms of numbers) what the difference would have been, though.

[Yubaking]

The Houston defense is more of a classic 3-4 that requires the ideal 335 pound NT, the Chargers are more of a hybrid that uses the 3-4 on early downs, but can bring in the DE's to play DT at times. I want Carruthers to fill that classic NT but he's still raw. Yeah, Houston may have seen more value in Powe and Nix long term, and made Mathews available. Many Houston fans are questioning that decision... just check their boards.

Houston's defense used an undersized NT just last year. They changed to a bigger NT this year. The team felt Powe beat out Mathews to the extent they were competing at NT. Powe is the first teamer and Mathews didn't even make the team. That's a pretty sharp contrast.

All NFL teams use different formations on different downs. We have two DL players that can rush the passer in Reyes and Liuget. What we lack is an established run stuffing NT. Carrethers has potential and should be a Charger, but he should not be counted on as our primary run stuffing NT. That's just bad strategy in my opinion.