For most people, if they the name of Tee Martin at all, they know it as the name of one of the six quarterbacks who were drafted ahead of Tom Brady the year he came out. There’s a whole documentary about the ‘Brady Six’, in which Brady cries because he fell all the way to the sixth round, which is obviously the highlight of the entire enterprise.
Martin was, in fact, drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers, so they will always be linked in some sense to helping the New England Patriots land Brady where they did, as one of the six teams who thought there was a quarterback better than Brady and worth drafting.
The fifth-round pick only lasted a few years in the league, never starting a game and only getting into a few. He never attempted a pass for the Steelers, but would later got 6-for-16 for the Raiders in 2003, throwing for 69 yards and an interception.
He may not have been a great quarterback, but he has garnered a decade and a half of coaching experience since then, working in a variety of roles, and his latest stop is in the AFC North, having recently been named the Baltimore Ravens’ wide receivers coach. He talked about the Ravens’ group earlier this week, along with new passing game coordinator Keith Williams.
“Those guys are fast, young, diverse in their styles“, Williams said of Baltimore’s receivers, which consists of Marquise Brown, Willie Snead (who is a free agent), Miles Boykin, Devin Duvernay, and James Proche. “You can tell that they like football, and they’re ready to take the next step in development”.
One has to wonder how much they have even gotten to communicate with their players yet at this point, given that they were only recently hired, and offseason contact tends to be somewhat limited, especially under the circumstances.
“We are very vast here as an offense, very multiple”, Martin said. “The things that we do in the run game and the passing game, it’s exciting to learn a new system. We’re the best team in the country, in the world at running the football. I’m excited learning that”.
Of course, they may lead the league in rushing, but they tend to be on the opposite end in the passing game, and that’s what so many outside analysts have been focusing on this offseason, believing that they have pretty much plateaued unless they can take that next step throwing the ball.
