Getty Former Raiders LB Blake Martinez.
Blake Martinez is ending his retirement almost a year after he made it official. The former Las Vegas Raiders linebacker has decided to return to the NFL and already landed with a new team.
As first reported in a November 6 X post by Bleacher Report’s Jordan Schultz, Martinez is signing to the practice squad of the Carolina Panthers.
Sources: Veteran LB Blake Martinez is coming out of retirement and is signing with the #Panthers, sources tell @BleacherReport.
Martinez, who has over 700 career tackles and 39 TFLs, was last with the Raiders after spending his first six years with the Packers and Giants.
“He’s played a lot of great football,” Panthers head coach Frank Reich said of Martinez during his November 6 media availability. “Will be good to get him in here.”
Martinez’s retirement came abruptly for the Raiders last season. He left the team prior to their Week 10 matchup against the Indianapolis Colts to focus on selling Pokemon cards. He’s still just 29 years old so there should be some juice left in the tank.
Martinez has been a very productive linebacker in the past. He was the NFL’s co-leader in tackles back in 2017 with 144. Every time he’s played a full season, he’s had more than 140 tackles. The Panthers are allowing 28.3 points per game this season, which is the most in the NFL this season. Carolina’s defense needs all the help it can get, especially with the offense having the seventh-worst scoring offense (17.5 points per game). Martinez should have a good chance to get promoted to the active roster soon.
Jaylon Smith Gets Solid Workload in Debut
The Raiders have been dealing with injuries to their linebacker corps for the past few weeks. Starter Divine Deablo has missed back-t0-back games, which played a factor in why the team signed Jaylon Smith last week.
With Deablo and Luke Masterson both out in Week 9 against the New York Giants, the Raiders needed Smith to carry a decent workload. He ended up playing 25 snaps, which accounted for 40% of the team’s defensive snaps. That’s a decent workload for a player who hadn’t played all season. The fact that Smith has previous experience playing under defensive coordinator Patrick Graham likely made the transition easier.
Smith made just two tackles but his workload will likely get bigger if Deablo and/or Masterson continue to miss time.
Maxx Crosby Talks Defense
The Raiders arguably had their best defensive performance in years against the Giants. It was the first time they allowed less than 10 points in a game since a Week 8 matchup against the Cleveland Browns in 2020.
The Giants have the worst scoring offense in the NFL (11.2 points per game) but it’s still notable that the Raiders defense was able to dominate any team. Defensive end Maxx Crosby believes that the defensive improvements have a lot to do with added confidence.
“That’s the confidence you have to have in this league,” Crosby said during his November 5 postgame media availability, via The Athletic’s Tashan Reed. “You have to go out there with ill intent and the intention to go win. … We had a lot of confidence, we were ready to go, and you just felt it in the building.”
The Raiders host a New York Jets team in Week 10 that’s averaging 16.5 points a game, which is third-worst in the NFL. It should be another strong game for the Las Vegas defense if they’ve truly turned things around. The Raiders have a matchup against a high-powered Miami Dolphins offense the following week so they’ll need to hold up against the Jets as things only get more difficult after Week 10.
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Ex-Raiders LB Comes out of Retirement to Sign in NFC