Green Bay selects Kamal Martin in the fifth round, 175th pick overall
- By Tom Schardin, tschardin@swpub.com
- Apr 27, 2020
Kamal Martin won’t have to go very far to start his NFL career.
The Green Bay Packers selected the 2016 Burnsville High School graduate in the fifth round (175th pick overall) in the NFL Draft on April 25. The 6-foot-3, 240-pound linebacker was one of five University of Minnesota players selected in the three-day virtual event, a program record for the Gophers.
“I’m fired up; I can’t wait to get to work,” Martin wrote on Twitter.
Martin played four season at Minnesota. He dealt with a knee injury his senior year, so he wasn’t able to compete in Minnesota’s 31-24 win over Auburn in the Outback Bowl Jan. 1.
Martin also didn’t participate in any of the drills at the NFL Combine in February, but he did interview with teams. In his eight games with the Gophers this past season, he led the team with 8.75 tackles per game while also intercepting two passes and recording one sack.
For his career at Minnesota, Martin finished with 177 tackles (106 solo), nine pass breakups, four interceptions and 3.5 sacks.
What kind of linebacker is Green Bay getting?
“With Kamal, the first thing I notice is his toughness and versatility,” Packers Midlands area scout Brandian Ross said on packers.com. “He played through the knee injury at some point late last year before he shut it down.
“He has some length and size to him that allows him to be more physical with those tight ends who like to stretch the seam.”
Martin was a quarterback and safety in his two seasons at Burnsville under head coach Tyler Krebs. He earned all-state honors in his senior year by the Minnesota Associated Press, leading the Blaze to a 9-2 overall record and the program’s first state berth since 1995.
The Blaze lost 32-14 to Maple Grove in the 2015 Class 6A state quarterfinals.
Martin’s selection as first-team all-state reflected his ability to play on both sides of the ball. He was named the all-purpose, all-state player. He completed 63 of 117 passes for 877 yards and nine touchdowns with just one interception for Burnsville in his final year. He also ran for 400 yards on 88 carries and eight touchdowns.
Defensively, Martin finished with 79 tackles, two forced fumbles, an interception and 13 pass breakups.
Martin nearly decided to play college football as a quarterback, possibly at Eastern Michigan. But after participating in a Gophers football camp and then being recruited by his hometown team, Martin decided to make the move to play linebacker.
“I played a little bit of defense my senior year in high school (in the secondary), and always been a fan of the physical side of the football game,” Martin said on packers.com. “I feel like that’s one of the reasons we fall in love of the game, because there’s nothing like it.
“There’s nothing like that physical side where you truly get to punish opponents, especially in the cold. We love that up at Minnesota; we love playing in the cold.”
It’s cold in Green Bay, too, and inside linebacker is a need for the Packers. If Martin makes a quick impression, he could be in the mix for a lot of playing time as a rookie, including on special teams.
Christian Kirksey, a free agent acquisition from the Cleveland Browns, looks to be one of the starting linebackers on the inside.
If Martin finds himself playing on Sundays, he will be the third Burnsville player to play in the NFL since 2016. C.J. Smith, a 2011 Burnsville graduate, broke into the league with the Philadelphia Eagles as a cornerback in 2016 and also had brief stints with Cleveland (2017) and the Denver Broncos (2018).
Chase Roullier, a 2012 Burnsville graduate, is the starting center for the Washington Redskins. He was a sixth-round pick (199th overall) in the 2017 NFL draft.
