Could Sam Martin Be on His Way out of Motown?
Lions general manager Bob Quinn has a multitude of questions to answer this offseason, pertaining to what Detroit's roster will look like in 2020.
One of them is whether to re-sign longtime Lions punter Sam Martin.
Martin, who was a fifth-round pick of the organization in 2013, is set to enter free agency for the first time in his career.
After two years of recording an average of less than 45 yards per punt, he bounced back in 2019 with an average of 45.3 per boot. And that was the case, despite the fact that he was bothered by an abdominal injury for a portion of the season.
Martin, in his seventh year in the league, averaged over 50 yards per punt in Weeks 15 and 16 -- 51.6 against the Buccaneers and 52.2 against the Broncos, respectively.
Over the course of those two weeks, he punted 10 times, and accumulated 519 yards -- good for an average of 51.9 yards per punt.
It was a nice bounce-back campaign for Martin, who saw his non-guaranteed base salary in 2019 drop from $2.4 million to a guaranteed $1.7M.
He likely won't be willing to take another paycut to stay in Detroit, and he likely will want to return to that $2M-plus price tag.
If he does -- which should be expected -- Quinn & Co. might not be willing to match it.
The reason why: The presence of former Michigan punter Matt Wile, who was signed to a reserve/futures contract December 30.
Wile, who's spent time in the NFL with various teams since 2016, averaged 45.2 yards on 72 punts in 2018 with the Vikings and 48.3 on six punts this past season with the Falcons.
For his career, he's averaged 45.5 yards per punt. Meanwhile, Martin -- albeit in a much larger sample size -- has averaged 46 yards per boot.
Obviously, not much of a difference there.
And most importantly for the Lions, by moving on from Martin, they would create additional cap space.
According to Over The Cap, Wile is set to make a base salary of $735K in 2020.
Sure, getting rid of Martin's contract won't save the Lions a significant amount of money, and they could afford to give him an increase in pay.
However, the cap savings the Lions would gain by turning to Wile could be allocated toward a position of greater need, such as for an upgrade at pass rusher.
It'd be a shrewd move by the front office and one that would bring the end to Martin's time in Motown.
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