New Cornerback Took Unusual Path to Packers
GREEN BAY, Wis. – New Green Bay Packers cornerback Dominique Martin personifies the phrase “taking the road less traveled.”
Martin played receiver for his first three seasons at Division II Tarleton State. After catching 30 passes as a junior, he moved to defense at the urging of new defensive coordinator Marcus Patton.
“Dominique was a very good athlete here at Tarleton State,” Patton said in an e-mail on Thursday. “His hands weren't bad but they weren't the most consistent. I talked to him about at DB, if he could catch half the passes they complain about at wide receiver, he could be a really good corner. He was a 5-foot-10, 185-pound kid with a 4.4 40-yard dash and 38-inch vertical. He was also tough.”
At the end of spring ball heading into his senior year, Patton – charged with fixing the worst defense in Division II – tried again to convince Martin to switch to defense. This time, Martin heeded the advice. So, during fall camp leading into his senior season, Patton made the move to cornerback. It’s a position he had never played – he played safety as a freshman in high school – but he was incredibly productive with five interceptions and 15 pass breakups.
“Led the conference in INTs that year,” Patton said. “His only downfall in college was he started playing DB too late. He could have been an FBS, maybe even a Power-5, corner had he started playing DB in high school. A lot of schools in Texas will put their top five athletes at receiver before they even start thinking about defense. I have made a living trying to convince some athletic wide receivers that they would have a better future at DB. Dominique was definitely in that class.”
Did we mention that all of this happened years ago?
Martin’s one and only season on the defensive side of the ball came in 2016. After going undrafted in 2017, he got a tryout at the Rams’ rookie camp but wasn’t signed. In 2018, he played defensive back and receiver in Germany for the Cologne Crocodiles. In 2020 and 2021, he was back on defense for the Conquerors of The Spring League. He also signed on to play Fan Controlled Football in 2021 but there’s no record of him playing. He recently had tryoutd with the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks.
Martin takes the roster spot of outside linebacker Randy Ramsey. The team announced Ramsey was placed on season-ending injured reserve with the ankle injury sustained early in training camp. It was a fate the Packers were hoping to avoid after he ranked third on the team with nine tackles on special teams in 12 games last season.
“I’m not going to quite get into that yet,” coach Matt LaFleur said on Tuesday. “There’s still a long ways to go. To totally discount him for the entire season, I think, would be unfair.”
