Packers losing Kamal Martin robs Green Bay of defensive upside
Packers rookie linebacker Kamal Martin will miss 6-8 weeks with a knee injury.
A fifth-round pick out of Minnesota in the 2020 NFL Draft, linebacker Kamal Martin was probably not expected to be a key contributor for the Green Bay Packers in his rookie season when they selected him in late April. But as training camp progressed and rave reviews continued to pour in, that started to shift.
Roughly a week ago, I surmised that Martin could potentially start alongside Christian Kirksey at inside linebacker in the 2020 season. That’s how impressive he’d been in camp, especially with his ability to crash down, rush as a blitzer and patrol sideline-to-sideline against the run. Unfortunately, that won’t be a possibility for at least Week 1.
On Wednesday, ESPN’s Rob Demovsky reported that Martin underwent surgery for a meniscus injury that will keep him out of action for 6-8 weeks. With the regular season set to kick off in roughly a week and a half, that will put him out until at least Week 5 and likely longer than that.
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While Martin might just be a fifth-round rookie, his absence from the Week 1 roster and for the start of the season does take the upside of the Packers defense down a notch.
Martin missing time takes away some upside for the Packers defense.
With Martin no longer an option, the Packers are turning to either Oren Burks or Ty Summers as the starter with Kirksey in the middle of the defense. While Green Bay has been waiting for a full season of Burks being healthy both players are a bit limited in what they’ve shown, even if they aren’t bad options.
On the other hand, with his training camp performance, Martin got the imaginations of fans moving in high gear. Though the team let Blake Martinez walk in free agency, if Martin was as good as advertised in actual NFL competition and Kirksey returned to healthy form, that was a substantial upgrade to the most glaring weakness of the defense.
Furthermore, Martin’s calling card as a prospect out of Minnesota was as a downhill run stuffer who could consistently clog when crashing down. Incidentally, that was an area where the Packers struggled substantially last year, the two blowout losses to the 49ers standing as clear evidence. Martin could’ve been a potential solution to that.
This isn’t to say that Green Bay’s defense is now dead in the water without Martin — it’s not. The simple truth is that they weren’t counting on him being a breakout rookie coming into the year. Having said that, Martin being that raised the ceiling of what this defense could’ve been.
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While he’ll return at some point if his recovery goes as planned, he’ll have lost time for more practice and reps as a rookie, which further stacks the deck. Regardless, the upside of the Packers defense is now more limited than it was with Martin as a potential starter at linebacker come Week 1.