Taylor Martinez is an American football quarterback, currently a free
agent. He played college football at Nebraska.The Martinez played his senior year of high school football at Centennial High School in Corona, California,
where he was a teammate of Vontaze Burfict and Will
Sutton. At Centennial he passed for over 3,000 yards, including 28
touchdowns with a 61 percent pass completion.
Today Taylor Martinez, the former Nebraska quarterback who
went undrafted over the weekend, will be joining the Philadelphia Eagles in
training camp. However, he will not be competing with Mark
Sanchez and Matt Barkley for a backup quarterback job. Martinez,
who was ranked as the 5th highest-rated undrafted player, also worked out as a
safety and wide receiver during his pro day at Nebraska. Martinez is a “tweener” with a high athletic
upside and a long list of accomplishments during his tenure as the Cornhuskers’
quarterback. He averaged 5.1 yards per carry at Nebraska and ran a 4.41 40-yard dash at the
combine at 6’ 1’’. He was one of the most athletic players at the combine, as
he led quarterbacks in 40 time, vertical, and shuttle and was second in the
cone drill. Philadelphia Eagles Taylor Martinez, The Eagles have four
quarterbacks on their roster already; starter Nick Foles, backups Mark Sanchez
and Matt Barkley, and practice squad thrower GJ Kinne, so he probably won’t
even be considered as a QB. Instead, Chip Kelly must have liked what he saw
during the receiver and DB drills, and signed him to play safety or wide
receiver. His speed and athleticism will be a huge asset on special teams, Philadelphia
Eagles Taylor Martinez, as the Eagles struggled to contain players like Darren
Sproles on returns last season, Philadelphia Eagles Taylor Martinez.
Philadelphia Eagles Taylor
Martinez, the former Nebraska quarterback who went undrafted over
the weekend, will be joining the Philadelphia Eagles in training camp. However,
he will not be competing with Mark Sanchez and Matt Barkley for a backup
quarterback job. Philadelphia Eagles Martinez, who was ranked as the 5th
highest-rated undrafted player, also worked out as a safety and wide receiver
during his pro day at Nebraska.
Philadelphia Eagles Martinez
is a “tweener” with a high athletic upside and a long list of accomplishments
during his tenure as the Cornhuskers’ quarterback. Philadelphia Eagles He
averaged 5.1 yards per carry at Nebraska
and ran a 4.41 40-yard dash at the combine at 6’ 1’’. He was one of the most
athletic players at the combine, as he led quarterbacks in 40 time, vertical,
and shuttle and was second in the cone drill. The Eagles have four quarterbacks
on their roster already; starter Nick Foles, backups Mark Sanchez and Matt
Barkley, and practice squad thrower GJ Kinne, so he probably won’t even be
considered as a QB. Instead, Chip Kelly must have liked what he saw during the
receiver and DB drills, and signed him to play safety or wide receiver. Philadelphia
Eagles His speed and athleticism will be a huge asset on special teams, Philadelphia
Eagles as the Eagles struggled to contain players like Darren Sproles on
returns last season, Philadelphia Eagles.
Philadelphia Eagles There is a commitment
to improving the special teams play. Last year, of course, was Chip
Kelly’s first in the NFL. Philadelphia Eagles That meant enormous changes for
the Eagles, from the way they train and practice to the styles of offense and
defense they play. It is understandable that Kelly would focus on special teams
more after spending a season in the league. The Eagles added Bryan Braman,
Philadelphia Eagles a linebacker who excelled on special teams in Houston, and
cornerbacker Nolan Carroll, Philadelphia Eagles an excellent gunner on coverage
teams. Safety Chris Maragos was a special teams regular for Seattle last year. Darren
Sproles, who will see plenty of time on offense, is a first-rate return man. Of
course, the Eagles also brought in kicker Carey Spear to compete with Alex
Henery. But it has already become clear that Henery is way ahead of Spear when
it comes to field goals. Philadelphia Eagles Ideally, the Eagles would like to
see Henery improve his kickoffs, getting closer to the league average for
touchbacks. “The top [kickers] in the league are in the 70s [percentage-wise],”
special teams coordinator Dave Fipp said. “We’re looking at the 60s as a pretty
good number, I think. Alex has been very accurate over his career on field
goals, 48 yards or less. There were only two guys who were ahead of him in the
National Football League.” Ultimately, the Eagles are willing to trade some
short kickoffs for that acumen on field goals. If Henery can improve a bit on
kickoffs, that will help. But so will covering those kickoffs better. That’s
where Braman, Carroll, Maragos and Jason Phillips come in. Phillips
was added last year as a core special teamer, but tore his ACL in training
camp. Nick Foles has the strongest arm, by far, of the four quarterbacks
here. You have to go back to Donovan McNabb’s rookie year, when Koy Detmer
and Doug Pederson were in camp, to find as wide a margin between one
quarterback and the rest. In fairness, Mark Sanchez is still on a
“pitch count” after surgery to repair his right shoulder last year. Matt
Barkley, who was coming back from shoulder surgery last year, does not exactly
have a cannon for an arm. For 15 years of McNabb and Michael Vick, the
Eagles always had a quarterback with a high-caliber arm. It may be that arm
strength is not as important as other attributes in Kelly’s offense, but the
coach says otherwise. “We focus on everything,” Kelly said. “There's not one
thing that we look for and say, ‘You know, he has a quick release but it's OK,
he doesn't have a very strong arm.’ I think you want the whole package in terms
of what you're looking for. I think it's a combination of how accurate a
thrower he is; and I'm not going to say, ‘Hey, I want to take this guy, he can
get it out of his hands really quick but he's inaccurate when he throws the
football.’ So there's a lot more that goes into it than one thing.” There looks
to be enough speed on offense even with DeSean Jackson gone. When
they were teammates, Jeremy Maclin was the possession receiver while Jackson was the big-play
guy. Coming off his second ACL tear, it isn’t reasonable to expect Maclin to
become the game-breaking burner that Jackson
was. But Maclin has decent speed and still hasn’t played in Kelly’s offense. So
it remains to be seen how the coach utilizes Maclin’s skill set. Sproles and
rookies Jordan Matthews and Josh Huff all have very good speed. While Sproles is
a running back and not a wide receiver something Kelly made a point of emphasizing
several times he is a guy with a history of making big plays
in the passing game. Matthews and Huff will likely contribute more as the
season goes on, they become more comfortable and Kelly becomes more familiar
with their potential. Philadelphia Eagles Riley Cooper,
the other starting wide receiver, Philadelphia Eagles got plenty of deep balls
thrown to him last year. He benefited from defenses focusing on Jackson, Philadelphia
Eagles but it looks as if there are enough weapons for Kelly to put strain on
defensive coordinators even without Jackson, Philadelphia Eagles.
