Now that the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2023 season is getting underway after the team finished above .500 but failing to make the postseason last year, we turn our attention to the next chapter of Steelers football and everything that entails. One thing that it means is that some stock evaluations are going to start taking on more specific contexts as we get into the season, reflecting more immediate plusses and minus rather than trends over long periods. The nature of the evaluation, whether short-term or long-term, will be noted in the reasoning section below.
Player: ILB Blake Martinez
Stock Value: Up
Reasoning: The veteran inside linebacker made his Steelers debut on Thursday night against the New England Patriots, logging a similar amount of snaps as Mykal Walker and generally looking like there isn’t all that much rust to knock off.
Could we get another change in the starting lineup before Saturday afternoon? While Mykal Walker has been on the field for the past few games at inside linebacker, I don’t think anybody would be surprised if he loses ground to Blake Martinez, signed off the Carolina Panthers’ practice squad a few weeks ago.
After sitting on the bench for his first couple of games, Martinez got the call to be activated last time out. He logged 21 snaps against the New England Patriots, finishing the game with four tackles—all of them coming in the final 20 minutes of the game. The most notable came late as the sole credited tackler against Patriots QB Bailey Zappe on an attempted 3rd-and-1 sneak.
That stop forced New England to punt with the Steelers trailing by three, but the offense did not run a play until there were just 15 seconds left, and no timeouts. It only ran two plays before running out of time, beginning the series on the 13-yard line. But at least that stop gave the Steelers a chance to try something.
Given the struggles Walker has had the past week, particularly in coverage, it would hardly be surprising if we see the balance in their snap counts tweaked in the coming weeks. Or perhaps Martinez will simply take over the starting lineup, either entirely or in bulk.
Having retired over a year ago, Martinez spent a couple of weeks in Carolina getting into football shape on its practice squad before the Steelers signed him to their 53-man roster. The Panthers attempted to sign him to their 53 at the time, but he opted for Pittsburgh.
Now he could be a starter over the course of the final four games. How much of a difference might that make? Well, one would hope that at least it will require offenses to repeatedly target someone else in coverage, so that’s something.
