Seahawks rookie Jacob Martin doesn’t want to be heard. But he’s been seen a lot rushing QBs
Be seen. Not heard.
Jacob Martin said he learned that from his brother, who is a linebacker with the New York Jets. Seen, not heard, is Martin’s job as a rookie on this Seattle Seahawks roster, no matter how many of the myriad meetings rooms he’s sent to or how many unsung plays he’s helped make defensively this season.
But that comes fairly easy for Martin, who wasn’t projected by some to even be drafted out of Temple, much less staring at significant playing time for the Seahawks as he prepares for a playoff game in his home state against the Cowboys at 5:15 p.m. Saturday in Dallas.
“How I look at it, an opportunity is an opportunity, regardless of reps or what your role is or anything, if you embody your role,” Martin said. “I feel like I have embodied my role.”
Martin played a season-high 42 snaps defensively against the Cardinals on Sunday, which included his third sack of the season and the second forced fumble of the past four games.
So much of the success of the Seahawks’ revamped defensive line, which lost Michael Bennett, Cliff Avril and Sheldon Richardson among others from last season, has been pinned on Frank Clark and Jarran Reed. But Martin’s impact hasn’t gone unnoticed.
His coaches and teammates have seen and heard him plenty, especially on third downs.
“We see the spark Jake brings,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said. “He’s a really high-energy guy and high-effort guy with a great motor.
“I think it took him some time to get knocked around by big tackles and all of that to really find his game, but he’s really starting to find it now. We like his activity and if you just keep him out there things are going to happen. When you have that kind of motor, that’s one of the great attributes of pass rushers when they have it – and he has it.”
Martin’s strip sack early in the second quarter on Sunday came when the Cardinals were driving with the Seahawks clinging to a 7-3 lead.
He obliged by showcasing his country roots. Martin was born in Houston and moved to Colorado, where he and his brother, Josh Martin, both played at Cherokee Trail High School. So his sack celebration included him using an imaginary rope to lasso an imaginary calf because he basically calf-roped quarterback Josh Rosen.
“I’ve never actually calf roped,” Martin admitted. “But I’ve ridden horses growing up and roped things and I’ve been to quite a few rodeos. That’s something we did growing up as a kid. We went to the stock show all the time in Colorado.”
Now the Cowboy gets to play his first career playoff game against the Cowboys. He said he had about 15 of his friends and family reach out for tickets.
“Now I just need them to do their part and show up,” he said.
If they do, Carroll said Martin will see plenty more snaps on Saturday.
This comes after Martin was asked to work out with the Seahawks’ linebackers, not so much with the defensive linemen, early this offseason.
Defensive line coach Clint Hurtt said they looked at moving Martin to more of a rush linebacker in the mold of former Seahawk Bruce Irvin during training camp, but they’d call him back to work with the defensive linemen on days they’d focus on third-down pass rushing.
“We felt like he could be like a Bruce Irvin where he’s going to be a SAM linebacker in base and be a nickel sub rusher,” Hurtt said. “That was the initial thought.”
But the more they watched, especially his motor and technique as a pass rusher, the more they liked him as a down lineman. That’s showed itself as the season wore on and why an undersized defensive lineman out of Temple is getting on to the field for a playoff team.
“When we were evaluating him from the draft that was what we were really excited about with him being there in the late rounds,” Hurtt said. “He was a guy who had great initial quickness and burst and then he showed violent hands in college. But when a young guy gets in you have to build a rush plan. What is my go-to move? What is my complementary counter so that on approach it looks the same to the blocker?
“He’s found that, and he’s worked every single day to continue to get better. Obviously, late in the year here he’s started to flash that even more and more and that’s how it should be. I think his game is only going to continue to ascend.”
And Martin didn’t mind that it has taken him bouncing between linebacker and defensive line group meetings and being a frequent special teams contributor. Actually, he said he thinks that’s been awesome, and he’ll gladly take learning from Bobby Wagner in one meeting and Frank Clark the next.
“I was with coaches in OTAs and they were like, ‘This is what we see you as, Jake,’” he said. “You have an opportunity to make the team if you embody your role on special teams and third downs or you can throw it away and I wouldn’t be here. My goal is to always get 100 percent better every day, focus on the little things, and what things I can fix. Because I can fix things every day.”
This story was originally published January 2, 2019 at 5:40 PM.
