Blake Martinez

Blake Edmon Martinez (born January 9, 1994) is an American football inside linebacker for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL). He was an accomplished high school football player Canyon del Oro High School in Oro Valley, Arizona before attending Stanford University on a scholarship. At Stanford, he was a two-year starter at linebacker for the Cardinal where he was named to the first-team All-Pac-12 team in 2015. He was drafted after his junior year of college by the Green Bay Packers in the 2016 NFL Draft.

Early years

Martinez was born in Tucson, Arizona to Marc and Carrisa Martinez. He attended Canyon del Oro High School in Oro Valley, Arizona where he played tight end, running back, and linebacker under head coach Dustin Peace.^[1] In addition to lettering in football, he also lettered in basketball and volleyball. During his time at Canyon del Oro, he was named to the PrepStar All-West Region Team, and was also a Two-Time Defensive Player of the year. Additionally, he holds the school record with 247 tackles, while also amassing 1,100 total offensive yards his senior year.^[1]

Martinez was ranked as a three-star inside linebacker by Rivals.com.^[2] He received several scholarship offers from schools such as Stanford, Boise State, Oregon State, and San Jose State. He also received interest from Arizona, Arizona State, Northern Arizona, Oregon, and San Diego State. He ultimately signed his letter of intent to play with Stanford on August 1, 2011.^[1]

College career

In Martinez's first year with the Stanford Cardinal, he played in 14 games and had the first tackle of his college career against Duke University.^[1] At the end of the year, he received Stanford's Greg Piers Service Team Award on for his efforts on defense.^[1]

Continuing into his sophomore year, Martinez played in 10 games and had 11 tackles (seven solo). His best game of the year coming against the California Golden Bears where he had six tackles, forced a fumble, and had his first career interception.^[3] At the end of the year, he was named an Academic All-Pac-12 honorable mention.^[1]

Martinez had a breakout season his junior year where he started 13 games. In three of those games, he had over ten tackles.^[1] In arguably his best game of the season, he intercepted back-to-back passes that had been thrown by quarterback Jared Goff, the first overall draft pick in the 2016 NFL Draft. This ended Goff's school record for most consecutive attempts without an interception. He also forced a fumble in a third and goal situation from Daniel Lasco. Martinez later commented that finishing off the game the way he did was "huge".^[4] He finished the year with a team-leading 102 tackles and was named an All-Pac-12 honorable mention and to Phil Steele's All-Pac-12 third team.^[1][5][6]

In his final season with the Cardinal, Martinez was named to Phil Steele's All-America preseason fourth team and his All-Pac-12 First team.^[7] He played in 14 games and finished with a Team-high 141 tackles (75 solo), 1.5 sacks, and six pass breakups. His efforts earned him being named to the All-Pac-12 first team by the Conference, Associated Press, and Phil Steele.^[1][8]

Professional career

Martinez was projected by Lance Zierlein of NFL.com as a fifth or sixth round pick. He was complimented as being one of the better physically built players in the draft who had the competitive edge to play in the middle. He also described him as a "Business-minded machine" against the run who has good lateral quickness and would be an asset on special teams.^[9] He was also concerned about his slow play speed and noted he would have to change his mindset to gain some more speed with everything he does. He additionally noted that he would not win any foot races and that he would need work on his situational awareness on the field.^[9]

Martinez was picked in the 4th round (131st overall) of the 2016 NFL Draft by the Green Bay Packers, who used their first of two fourth round compensatory picks.^[10] The selection of Martinez by the Packers addressed their perceived need at linebacker, adding a player who has been characterized as "an athletic, strong linebacker" who is able to play in both 3–4 and 4–3 defensive schemes and can drop back in coverage.^[11][12] On May 6, 2016, he signed a contract with the Packers.^[13]

In 2016, Martinez and Packer's inside linebacker, Jake Ryan, were dubbed "Jake and Blake' due to the amount of time they spent on the playing field together.^[14]

With Clay Matthews moving back to outside linebacker, Martinez became one of the starting inside linebackers, along with Jake Ryan, to begin the season. On September 11, 2016, he played in the Packer's regular season opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars and finished his debut with 5 solo tackles and 6 total.^[15]

References

External links

• Green Bay Packers bio
• Stanford Cardinal bio