Key individuals are rarely ever replaced with just one man assuming the tasks that they were responsible for. It’s generally a platoon of individuals making up the difference. And that’s even truer when you lose two key figures, as the Pittsburgh Steelers have at the inside linebacker position recently with season-ending injuries to Cole Holcomb and Kwon Alexander.
It’s no wonder, then, that they have been casting a wide net in looking for reinforcements. While Mykal Walker was added to the practice squad a week prior to the first of the two major injuries, they’ve since signed Myles Jack to the practice squad, and added Blake Martinez to the 53-man roster.
A former fourth-round pick out of Stanford, Martinez was a 49-game starter during his four seasons with the Green Bay Packers, later filling the same role for the New York Giants for 19 more games. A torn ACL derailed his career in 2021, however, and he was waived the following year, spending a brief period of time with the Las Vegas Raiders before retiring in-season in November.
I won’t go into the details over why Martinez came out of retirement—you can read about it yourself—but he signed with the Carolina Panthers’ practice squad on Nov. 6 with Carolina’s intention to sign him to the 53-man roster in time. As that time approached, he decided to sign with the Steelers’ 53-man roster instead.
“I think the path was to start playing here soon”, he told Chris Adamski of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review about his stint with the Panthers. “I know when as I was choosing to come here they were trying to make that late push to sign me there. But ended up choosing here”.
That’s not exactly a shock given the Steelers’ injury situation at the inside linebacker position, and Martinez acknowledged that was a factor in his decision, Adamski describing comments alluding to an expectation of playing time. “It seemed like the best option”.
The 29-year-old has 4,800 career defensive snaps under his belt, so he knows a thing or two about how the game is played. Between 2017 and 2020, he registered 594 tackles, never fewer than 144 in a season, with 34 combined tackles for loss. He also had 12 sacks, four forced fumbles, three interceptions, and 18 passes defensed.
But he hasn’t played all that much football since then. Just five starts in seven total games, amounting to 247 snaps with the Giants and Raiders. He’s had a couple of weeks with the Panthers getting his sea legs back under him, but now he has yet another new defensive system to learn.
Since he’s already on the 53-man roster, he can contribute right away, in theory, though the coaches may want to give him more time to settle in. Given his familiarity in working with several different teams over the course of his career, however, the transition is not so new to him.
