NFL1000: Rookie Review from Week 7

October 28, 2016   ·   Doug Farrar   ·   Jump to comments

Our top-ranked rookie this week went through a circuitous route to success. Packers inside linebacker Blake Martinez led the Pac-12 with 140 total tackles in 2015 for the Stanford Cardinal. But at 6’2” and 237 pounds at the NFL Scouting Combine, he was thought by some to be too small to be anything but a rotational player in the NFL.
Those who missed the boat on Martinez, whom Green Bay drafted in the fourth round, may have also missed the memo on the league’s current paradigm for inside linebackers, regardless of scheme: Almost unilaterally, they’re a good 20-30 pounds lighter than they were 10 years ago.
In today’s NFL, inside linebackers must be quick enough to diagnose and cover screens and seam routes, because they’re the only inside linebackers on the field in a lot of base schemes. Then they must develop adaptive techniques to offset their size limitations when crashing down on the run.
Against the Bears in Week 7, Martinez show...

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