With Pick 4A GB Selects Blake Martinez ILB Stanford

Half Empty said:
Don't know that the NFL.com folks think "great". Also where they think he'd be drafted. I know one can find a diversity of opinion, but since this was right on the page...

Weaknesses Slow twitch with borderline play speed. Must transition from a power mindset to a little more quickness in everything he does. Will need quicker hands to jab and separate to stay clean against NFL linemen. Below average lateral quickness. Won't win many foot races to the perimeter and has little margin for error with his angles. Not athletic enough to recover if he gets hung up on a block for too long. Too easily fooled into vacating his positioning by play-action. Doesn't have reactive athleticism to quickly recover back into his duties after biting on fakes. More of a block occupier than serious threat when blitzing. Average awareness dropping into zone coverage. Situational awareness needs work.
Draft Projection Rounds 5 or 6
Click to expand...
Half, you only posted the half empty part. There was a strengths paragraph too. That NFL page that rates all the prospects always has negatives and sometimes they contradict the strength part of the evaluation. Martinez showed well at his pro day and has a great football IQ (whatever that gets measured by). He's a good football player who I think will be starting next to Ryan with Barrington as the main middle back up.
 
T/J:
Congrats Dubz on your win with the draft! DPF told us in shout. elephant)

End T/J

As I've read and watched the videos, Martinez is an extremely smart young man. I have high hopes for this kid. :)
 
Dubz41 said:
Half, you only posted the half empty part. There was a strengths paragraph too. That NFL page that rates all the prospects always has negatives and sometimes they contradict the strength part of the evaluation. Martinez showed well at his pro day and has a great football IQ (whatever that gets measured by). He's a good football player who I think will be starting next to Ryan with Barrington as the main middle back up.
Click to expand...

True all around. I only put in the negatives because they seemed to contradict the enthusiasm for his coverage skills, which I figured had been mentioned enough. Also thought the projected draft round was significant in that all our other were no more than one round off.

Obviously, at this stage of the game, one can find support for any take. I was just trying to tone down the 'completely full' folks who feel that 'we now have our coverage linebacker'. :)
 
Half Empty said:
... I was just trying to tone down the 'completely full' folks who feel that 'we now have our coverage linebacker'. :)
Click to expand...

i'm with you.

i'm completely underwhelmed by this pick. i'm not saying it's a horrible pick, but i've seen multiple strengths/weaknesses profiles of this guy saying he's not very fast, and will have a tough time covering tight ends and running backs. i thought i would try to do a little research on my own, and there is surprisingly little video out there for this guy. lots more talking videos than videos of his play. this seems odd to me in this day of youtube highlight videos for every player of even marginal talent. i was hoping to find some videos of him covering tight ends and running back running out towards the sideline, and i found virtually nothing. there's a handful of videos of him stopping running backs in the center of the field, and there's a few "highlights" of him almost sacking quarterbacks.

i hope i'm wrong but i sense a major disappointment.
 
After a few days to research, digest, sober up, etc... from the weekend, this pick is actually the one I think has the most potential to make a big impact and soon.. He's the type of player that we've missed in the middle of the field.

The long road of draft analysis is littered with the corpses of draft "profiles" that were dead wrong. Whether it was a can't miss that flamed or a diamond in the rough.

The big question is, does this guy fit into the scheme with the guys we already have. And at the NFL level being a smart player is often more important than being a fast player.
 
Anyone else see that Martinez said his mom told him from the start of everything that the Packers were going to draft him and he was like yeah right mom. Guess he should listen to mom more. LOL
 
Coverage isn't just about straight ahead speed. I think there's a large component that has to do with reading the route, predicting the route, anticipation and timing. Years ago we had Brandon Chillar, our last good coverage LB. He ran a 4.7 at the combine. It's important but it's not necessarily everything.

Have to see how he performs in camp and how it all shakes out. My guess is he's more competition for Ryan than Barrington, and that like last year the plan is for Barrington to play all three downs.
 
So
GBP4EVER said:
Anyone else see that Martinez said his mom told him from the start of everything that the Packers were going to draft him and he was like yeah right mom. Guess he should listen to mom more. LOL
Click to expand...
So, even his Mama could see the Packers desperately needed a LB for inside? And it's taken Ted this long to see it??? We're in trouble folks! No wonder it took so long to fill the Safety spot! ;) :D
 
I can see why there is such varying a degree of opinions here. As always, the Scout teams have given paralysis by analysis. They analyze these poor guys to the point where they ignore talent because the player is too this or too that. I have high hopes for this kid. We shall see. I refuse to lose sleep over it. I need my sleep! coffee(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top