Kamal
Martin.
Kamal
Martin.
Minnesota· 6'3"· 240 lb
"Martin hits like a linebacker who learned the game as a safety, and the entire projection rests on whether the coverage catches up to the contact."Pre-draft read
A downhill second-level linebacker who played mostly at the WILL and in the box for Minnesota, Martin is a straight-line striker. He reads the guard, triggers early, and arrives with weight behind the shoulder, and at 6-foot-3 and 240 pounds he brings enough mass to reset a blocker on the move rather than get stacked at the point of attack.
He is at his best attacking the run. The coverage work is more projection than proof: he has the size and a defensive-back background that hint at matchup value, but the change of direction is long-strided and he opens his hips late. The athletic ceiling is good rather than rare. The signature is force on contact and a nose for the football.
Base 3-4 or nickel-heavy defense that keeps its inside linebackers clean behind two-gapping linemen
Year 1 early-down thumper and special-teams starter; ceiling is a two-down starting linebacker who comes off the field on third down.
A match-coverage defense that asks its second linebacker to carry tight ends vertically and pick up backs out of the backfield in man.
Keep him downhill and protected from combo blocks and the tackling force plays up in a hurry.
Kamal Martin: 2019 Minnesota Gophers Top Plays
The injury-shortened senior season, including both interceptions and the downhill run fits.
2020 NFL Draft: Minnesota Golden Gophers LB Kamal Martin Highlights
Pre-draft cutup of the tackling force and trigger against Big Ten run games.
Kamal Martin 2018 Highlights | MN Gophers Football
Junior year as a full-time starter, the 59-tackle season that established him in the box.
Martin is a converted high-school quarterback and safety from Burnsville who grew into a Big Ten linebacker over four seasons in his home state. That background explains the profile: instincts and ball skills are ahead of technique, and he finished his Minnesota career with four interceptions, four forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries, unusual splash for a box defender.
The production curve was steady rather than explosive. Ten tackles as a reserve freshman, 42 with seven for loss as a first-year starter, 59 as a junior, and a career-high 66 in only eight games as a senior before a knee injury cost him five games and any chance at a signature final season. That injury, plus a diagnosis that he plays a beat behind in man coverage, was the flag. He was a thumper on a defense that asked him to play downhill more than to carry tight ends up the seam.
Boards saw a fifth-to-sixth-round early-down linebacker and core special-teamer, with the upside dependent on the medicals. Green Bay took him at 175 as its first defensive pick of the class, betting he would push Oren Burks and Ty Summers for the second inside linebacker job next to Christian Kirksey.
- 01
Downhill trigger
he diagnoses the guard quickly and attacks the line of scrimmage without false steps, which is why his tackle rate climbed every year he started.
- 02
Tackling force
a 6-foot-3, 240-pound frame that arrives with real pop, and he finished through contact rather than dragging ball carriers down.
- 03
Ball production
four interceptions, four forced fumbles and three recoveries in college, splash numbers that reflect a genuine feel for the football.
- 04
Positional versatility roots
a former high-school quarterback and safety, he processes concepts faster than most recent converts to the position.
- 05
Special teams value
the size, speed and willingness to run down kicks gave him an immediate path onto an NFL roster regardless of defensive snaps.
- 01
Coverage fluidity
he is long-strided and opens his hips late, so quicker backs and tight ends separated on option routes and crossers.
- 02
Block deconstruction
he attacks blockers but lacks refined hand usage, and he could be sealed when a lineman got clean into his chest.
- 03
Durability
a knee injury cost him five games as a senior, and the same knee cost him the first five weeks of his NFL rookie season.
- 04
Thin starting résumé
only two full seasons as a starter, with the best of them cut short, left evaluators short on tape against top competition.
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Minnesota | 13 | 10 | 0.5 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2017 | Minnesota | 12 | 42 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 2018 | Minnesota | 12 | 59 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 2019 | Minnesota | 8 | 66 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Career | — | 45 | 177 | 3.5 | 4 | 5 | 4 |
Sports-Reference season lines including bowl games; the four seasons sum exactly to the 45-game, 177-tackle, 15-TFL, 3.5-sack career total. Starts per season from The Football Database sum to 27.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Special-teams core who fills in for a handful of defensive starts without holding a role.
Downhill run defender who becomes a multi-year starting linebacker through instincts and volume tackling.
Athletic box linebacker whose knee and coverage ceiling wash him out within two seasons.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Green Bay never got a clean run at him. Martin hurt his knee days before final cuts as a rookie, missed the first five weeks and a sixth game on the reserve/COVID-19 list, then played 10 games with six starts and produced 24 tackles, three for loss and a sack. That was enough to expect a Year 2 competition for a starting job, but the Packers signed De'Vondre Campbell in free agency, Martin slid down the camp depth chart, and Green Bay released him in August 2021 after a single season. Carolina picked him up and used him almost exclusively on special teams: six games, one start, two tackles. He has not appeared in a regular-season game since 2021.
In hindsight this is a fifth-round miss with an injury asterisk. Martin finished with 16 games, 26 tackles and one sack, and his rookie tape was competent, not damning. The coverage limitation evaluators flagged was the thing that mattered once Green Bay went out and bought a three-down linebacker; there was no sub-package role to fall back on. Combine that with a knee that cost him two consecutive preseasons and a promising downhill player never got the reps to prove anything.