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OT/G Zack Martin, Notre Dame
Martin is why you have a draft season in the first place. The Combine, the Senior Bowl, East-West and all that exists for (a.) small school players to get more shoulder-to-shoulder comparisons against bigger school guys, and (b.) the Zack Martins of the world: players with plenty of potential but still face lingering questions about their skillset because of the system they play in.
What you see when you watch Martin play, is a lighter tackle (6'4", 304 lbs) who is a fantastic technician in pass protection and gets really good push in the run game.
His kickslide is fantastic, and he's downright boring to watch in pass protection, as he has his guy pretty much negated 95% of the time, and the remaining 5% of time, he has great recovery time to mitigate whatever pressure he's surrendering. His technique is really, really polished; I've already said that, but it bears repeating. It's almost Joeckel-esque, how polished he is, though he didn't face the slate of passrushers that the SEC tackles have.
His run game is really solid -- he can seal the edge, or plow through a defensive tackle for push. Notre Dame had lots of success running behind him.
Here's why draft season will be very important for him, however. Of the Notre Dame games I watched this year, they don't ask for their linemen to pull or hit the second level very often (almost never, actually), so Martin's athleticism is rarely on display. It seems like Martin is a really good athlete, but it's really hard to say definitively. Also, one of the reasons Martin consistently plowed defensive tackles was because he was almost always double-teaming them with a guard.
You're not going to draft a tackle in the first, or hopefully in the second, unless you fully expect to give them as little help as possible.
So the question then becomes: is it the chicken, or the egg? Does Notre Dame refrain from pulling its tackles because Martin isn't up to it? Or is it a scheme thing? Does Notre Dame demand its tackles double-team with guards when it blocks downhill, or is it a scheme thing?
I'm willing to give Martin the benefit of the doubt right now, because his tape is so outstanding, but the next five months will be a big, big deal for him.
Projection for Martin: My best guess is that Martin is not an exceptional athlete, but is still a very good one for the tackle position. No clue on the run blocking, but he's such a technician that he's got to be fine in that department. Martin does come with some versatility, as he can play guard as well. To me, he looks like an outstanding candidate for a zone-blocking offense. Maybe first round quality, but most likely second round quality. As for power schemes like Reid's that utilize pulls and screens, well... I simply don't know how good of a candidate he'd be for the job.
Projected Chiefs interest @ 23: Marginal at best. Martin has two strikes against him in this regard: he's not quite the body type the Chiefs prefer in their lineman under Reid, and he hasn't really displayed himself as being a second-level blocker due to the team he plays on. As draft season goes on, and Martin proves himself, that could very well change.
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