Damien Martinez 2025 NFL Draft Profile

Damien Martinez 2025 NFL Draft Profile

If you have been reading my stock notes, you know Damien Martinez has been on my radar for a long, long time. We’re going to get into all of it with his 2025 NFL Draft profile. Let’s get right to it and have a chat about the Miami running back!

NFL Draft Stock Report: Week 1, Week 5, Week 6, Week 8, Week 9, Week 10, Week 14, Pop-Tarts Bowl, Senior Bowl (2), (3)

Martinez, 21, was a three star prospect coming out of the state of Texas. He actually got his start with Oregon State playing two seasons for the Beavers before finishing up with his final campaign for the Hurricanes. Martinez was an instant contributor as a freshman and has never finished below 6.1 YPC in any season.

Checking in at 6-foot, 217, I actually think Martinez made a conscious effort to be thinner during the predraft process. He was listed as much bigger during the season, and we’re very much talking about a power back here. This past year for Miami, Martinez posted 159 carries rushing for 1,002 yards and 10 touchdowns. Add in 17 receptions for 204 yards, too. The year prior with Oregon State, Martinez notched 1,185 yards on 194 carries and nine scores. The only difference is that at Oregon State, Martinez was an I-Form under-center running back. At Miami, the offense was shotgun over and over again.

I think that’s really the conversation to be had here. If you read my stock notes, you will notice he functioned better at Miami once Jordan Lyle got more of an active workload. At Oregon State, he was just the dude, and no one was stealing touches there. It’s just something that needs to be noted and credit to him for functioning in two very different style offensive attacks.

The predraft process has been really encouraging. It feels like I’m watching a better version of Rhamondre Stevenson go through this stuff again. He was good at the Senior Bowl, and the Combine checked a lot of boxes, too. A 4.51 time given his skillset is damn impressive. Long speed is not an issue here. His feet in short area also more than passed the test. He was even better in pass catching stuff than he realistically showed in college too.

There is one thing Martinez has going for him that you can’t ignore. He’s a mean MFer who runs with power. There’s a beast mode quality very few running backs have. I can find you about 30 different runs that look exactly like this. Power, take this right in the face, jokes on you, I’m not going down, here’s six other guys I’m carrying to the end zone. Martinez had two career fumbles and zero during his Miami tenure. Also add in 139 missed tackles during his career and a 3.9 yards after contact mark for his career.

I’ve been high on Martinez for a long time. He’s a middle round pick for me who can win in short yardage and protect the lead to close out a game.

Comp = 80% Steven Jackson

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