Blake Martinez has played four games with the Raiders this season. He has started two of those and was on the field for 91% of the Raiders’ defensive snaps against the Jaguars. The veteran linebacker has changed his plans since Sunday.
The seventh-year vet announced his retirement (via Instagram) on Thursday. Martinez spent time with the Packers, Giants and Raiders over the course of a successful career, one coming after he was drafted in the 2016 fourth round.
The Giants reached an agreement to keep Martinez this offseason, coming to terms on a restructured contract with the multiyear starter. Martinez, 28, had suffered an ACL tear during in 2021 and was entering the final season of a three-year, $30MM deal. The Giants reversed course on the high-priced inside ‘backer just before the season, releasing him and taking on some dead money in doing so.
While Martinez found a new home in Las Vegas, that partnership will end up being shortlived. The Raiders bumped Martinez up to their active roster not long after signing him to their practice squad. He recorded a game-high 11 tackles in his fourth and final game as a Raider, logging 63 defensive snaps against the Jags.
One of a few midround Packers draftees to be plugged in as a starting linebacker over the past several years, Martinez ended up starting 57 games with Green Bay. During his four-year run with the team, the Stanford product became one of the NFL’s most reliable sources of tackles. He racked up at least 144 stops from 2017-20, leading the league with 144 in 2017. He notched a career-high 155 in his 2019 contract year, providing a springboard to that $10MM-per-year Giants pact.
Martinez played for current Raiders DC Patrick Graham during much of his career. Graham was in Green Bay in 2018, working as the team’s linebackers coach, and was the Giants’ DC during Martinez’s two seasons in New York. Martinez joined James Bradberry as Giants big-ticket 2020 signings; each player helped Graham’s defense finish in the top 10 in points allowed. But Martinez’s early-season ACL tear in 2021 led to an early end to his Big Blue run.
For his career, Martinez totaled 706 tackles and 13 sacks. During that 2017-20 stretch, no one surpassed Martinez’s 594 tackles. Future Hall of Famer Bobby Wagner came closest, reaching 568.
He was always overrated. There are guys with tackles like Wagner or Leonard, and there are guys like Martinez and Schobert and the difference is huge.
not really.. I’d lump Blake in with the other 2 guys, more than I’d match him with Schobert
Maybe Blake towards the end there slowed down, but Blake in his prime was elite
Much much closer to Schobert than a hall of famer and a top two or three LB in football.
it’s not that hard to compare players on pro football reference .. the numbers are near identical
It’s also not hard to understand that linebacker performance goes beyond baseline numbers. Maybe don’t be so condescending
The reason you don’t just evaluate by looking at raw total stats is that you might draw an insane conclusion like Blake Martinez being nearly in the same echelon as Bobby Wagner.
He wasn’t elite early on. He was extremely average (and I’m being nice when I say that) while he was with the packers
Blake would always make the tackle, but it would be when the RB would be finishing gashing up the middle for 8 yards.
Packer fans will be all over this with “Martinez is available, go get him Gute!” along with cries to bring back Clay Matthews, Bryce Paup and Brian Noble.
Slow footed, but a good tackler. Denver’s Josey Jewell is a carbon copy.
Jewell is better in coverage than Martinez. Some people above put Martinez in with Schobert, but remember that Schobert had elite years as a coverage linebacker in Cleveland before falling off. Martinez could rack up tackles, but usually was too late to the runner to limit any gains. Not a bad linebacker, because he’d stop big plays, but not as good as the numbers made him appear.
Or as some might infer, one month of being around Josh McDaniels’ Raiders drained Martinez of his desire to continue playing football.
^ Bingo
He’ll make more money playing video games on Twitch then he did on the field and won’t have his brain knocked around every Sunday.
He just sold a rare pokemon card for $672K rcently … he’s a Pokemon fan