Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/276022
town of Indianapolis for the NFL Com- bine, but instead of marking a return to familiarity, those four days were about selling himself as large enough to handle the duties of an NFL offen- sive tackle. Despite a strong showing at the Se- nior Bowl and making a school-record 52 consecutive starts as Notre Dame's "Iron Man" the past four years and handling any defensive lineman that came his way — a group highlighted by Ryan Kerrigan (Purdue), Trent Mur- phy (Stanford), Aaron Donald (Pitts- burgh) and Nick Perry (USC) — Martin is deemed by some scouts as unworthy of staying at the tackle position at the next level because of his arm length. Martin measured at 6-4, 308 pounds and, most importantly to NFL execu- tives, 32.875-inch arms. (NFL scouts look at a measurement in the neighbor- hood of 34 inches as ideal.) Although the Notre Dame product said he is will- ing to play any position with his new team, he made it clear in no uncertain terms that he wants to remain a tackle. "I've played tackle my entire career," he said at the NFL Combine. "I tell teams that's the position I'm familiar with. I can be effective there." Martin had the opportunity to state his case during interviews with select teams and said he pointed to four years of film as his strongest advocate for persuading organizations that he can handle the position in the NFL. "I know there's a reason they do the measurements and stuff," Martin said. "I know why people look at that and it's great, but for me you have to watch the tape and give everyone a chance at a position before you rule them out because of measurements." ✦