Praising Canes

Seahawks running back Damien Martinez is used to climbing up the rankings

Three years ago, Miami landed a four-star running back recruit out of high school, the highest-ranked recruit for the Hurricanes that year and someone who new head coach Mario Cristobal hoped would someday rush for 1,000 yards and get drafted by an NFL team — perhaps the Seattle Seahawks.

But today we aren’t talking about Tre’Vonte Citizen.

Although Damien Martinez did rush for 1,000 yards with Miami last season and did get drafted by the Seahawks in the seventh round, he was nowhere close to the 88th-ranked recruit in the entire country like Citizen was in 2022. Martinez barely cracked the top-80 of his own state (which to be fair, is Texas) and wasn’t ranked nationally by Rivals:

Whereas Citizen was the fourth-ranked running back in the same high school class, ahead of recent first round pick Omarion Hampton (and Ashton Jeanty, a two-star unranked prospect out of Frisco, Texas), you won’t find Martinez until you get to prospect 37.

Three years later, Martinez is in the NFL, which is more than I can say for 30 of the 36 running backs ranked ahead of him. Whereas prospects at other positions might crave more time in college, especially during the NIL era to play-for-pay, running backs know how short their lifespans are in football.

Just ask Tre’Vonte Citizen. Miami’s prized recruit in the 2022 class never played a snap for the Hurricanes: Knee injuries ended his career there before it ever started and he’s currently competing for carries at McNeese State, where he averaged 3.6 YPC in 2024.

That is both a shame and reality, which is why running backs like Martinez have to make the jump to the league as soon as these two things are true:

• They’re eligible

• They’re draftable

This urgency could be a significant contributing factor as to why there seem to be more draft steals at running back than at other positions. It doesn’t just have to be that (athlete + good system = easy money). Consider this:

• The youngest player drafted this year was a running back (20-year-old Dylan Sampson)

• Eight running backs drafted were under 22, the most of any position

What does this tell us about running backs? With less information to go off of at draft time than other positions, a running back is closer to “he could be anything” than a 24-year-old wide receiver might be. He could be De’Von Achane (a 21-year-old running back in the 2023 class) or Kendre Miller (also 21, also ‘23, but not nearly as good).

When the Seahawks picked Martinez, they did so with the first of their three seventh round picks (ahead of Mason Richman* and Ricky White) and that usually means that the player in question won’t have many more days ahead when his name is in the headlines.

*On Saturday, I incorrectly called Richman “the last” of Seattle’s picks, but actually it was White

But Martinez is a running back, he was one of the youngest players in the draft, he’s coming off of back-to-back 1,000 yard seasons with different programs, and is on an offense that isn’t shy about telling us that they want to run the ball more in the future with offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak. If there’s a day three pick on the Seahawks who could recapture those headlines in the shortest amount of time, it’s Martinez.

“Damien Martinez is my favorite running back sleeper in the draft. There aren’t too many guys who have his size, juke moves, and scheme versatility.”

“Almost every other touch, he creates something outlandish when a defender is trying to tackle him. He loves to slow play behind the line of scrimmage, hop, and then make his decision. He’ll be compared to Le’Veon Bell because of that patience. He has the ability, despite his size, to jump cut to the outside and make something happen.”

Martinez went to a Seattle team that has two running backs locked ahead of him on the depth chart, but not two running backs who fans would want to bet on as far as whether they’ll get 200 carries in 2025. Kenneth Walker’s nagging injuries from last season have followed him into the offseason, whereas Zach Charbonnet’s fit for Kubiak’s backfield could be perfect OR it could be that the coaching staff begged for Martinez once he got past the fifth round.

A running back who has been productive since his freshman season, Martinez is a not-so-well-kept secret to potentially have an important role on the Seahawks during his rookie season.

Have gave Farmers insurance

As the starting running back for the Lewisville Farmers, Damien Martinez changed expectations at his Texas high school. Consider this:

• In 2018, the leading running back had 71 rushing yards per game

• As a sophomore in 2019, Martinez led the team with 62 rushing yards per game and scored 9 touchdowns

• But as a junior, Martinez averaged 182 rushing yards per game and scored 26 touchdowns

• As a senior, that number was 140 rushing yards per game and 23 touchdowns

Martinez rushed for over 3,000 yards and 8.4 yards per carry, scoring 48 touchdowns in his final two seasons at Lewisville.

In a revenge win over Plano West during his senior season, Martinez totaled 199 rushing yards and four touchdowns…in the first half. In a playoff win that season — a rarity for Lewisville (they went 2-8 before he enrolled) — he had 239 rushing yards on only 23 carries. Martinez was nominated for the Tom Landry Award as a senior, which goes to the best player in North Texas, and fittingly the photo they used was of him was barrelling through defenders while he had a broken hand:

As an all-state Texas running back, Martinez committed to Oregon State over offers from Georgia Tech and Kansas.

Leavin’ the Beavers

After a slow start to his college career, Martinez rushed for 83 yards and a touchdown on three carries against Stanford in Week 6 of the 2022 season.

The next week, he got 16 carries and had 111 yards against Washington State.

The week after that, Martinez had 178 yards and three touchdowns on 22 carries against Colorado.

Over a 7-game span that season, Damien Martinez had 120 carries for 825 yards (6.9 YPC) and scored six touchdowns. Once barely inside the top-40 running back recruits in the country, if that, Martinez had easily outpaced most of his peers by the end of his freshman season at Oregon State, a school one the brink of not even having a conference anymore.

He was the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and cited by some as the best freshman running back in the whole country.

With a lot more attention on him going into year two, Martinez didn’t slow down and rushed for over 100 yards in each of his first three sophomore games. By the end of the year, Martinez had 1,185 yards, 6.1 yards per carry, and 9 touchdowns, averaging 98.8 yards per game. He was a top-5 running back in the conference, but then his head coach left for Michigan State and 10 of the 12 teams in the Pac-12 also left for other opportunities.

Martinez followed suit, entering the transfer portal in 2024 and joining highly-touted quarterback Cam Ward en route to the Miami Hurricanes.

As noted in the beginning, Miami didn’t have a highly-touted running back because Citizen couldn’t stay on the field due to his ACL. Martinez took over for a starter who totaled just 600 yards on the ground in 2023 and rushed for 1,002 yards, 10 touchdowns, and 6.3 yards per carry in 2024. Martinez also had 17 catches for 204 yards, although that isn’t the part of his game that gets most people excited.

Martinez became the first Hurricanes player to rush for 1,000 yards in eight years. But needing one last “oh damn” moment before deciding to enter the draft or not, Martinez put up 179 yards against Iowa State in the Pop-Tarts Bowl (on 14 carries), a school bowl game record.

While some decisions to transfer and play in a bowl game can prove detrimental to a player’s NFL future, Martinez continued to make all the right jukes.

Seahawks Citizen

NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein compared Martinez to former Texans running back D’Onta Foreman, which would be a good get for Seattle.

Productive three-year starter with an impressive blend of power, dexterity and decisiveness. First and foremost, Martinez is truly a “big back” who proves he can find yards after contact on most carries. He lacks speed to win outside but does a nice job creating alternate routes using vision and agility when it’s congested inside. Despite a lack of breakaway speed, Martinez averaged 6.2 yards per carry on 514 career totes. He can catch passes here and there but could be best dialed in as a complementary banger capable of taking on the lion’s share of the carries if needed.

An anonymous scout went a different route, saying he reminded him of former Chargers back Natrone Means.

“I’m old school, so he reminds me of Natrone Means the way he’s got the nice feet but also the size and power.” – AFC regional scout

Martinez checks in at 6’, 217 lbs with a 4.51 40-yard dash, 1.56 10-yard split, and 35” vertical. Side by side with day two picks, it can be extremely difficult for a novice scouting crowd like us to see a difference between Damien Martinez and someone like Kaleb Johnson, a third round pick out of Iowa who is the same age, similar size/speed, and less productive in his college career.

Now Martinez enters the phase of his career where he is no longer a recruit or a draft prospect, but an actual NFL running back. No more stars, no more grades, no more physical tests and measurements of what he can do.

There is only production or not-production. Healthy or not healthy. Rostered or off of the gameday depth chart.

Some of Martinez’s immediate future will be out of his control and determined by the status of the two backs ahead of him, as well as the ones on his same level like Kenny McIntosh. But if his task is to jump over running backs who get more praise than him, then Martinez is well-prepared for the job.

Seaside Joe 2316