Nick
Martin.
Nick
Martin.
Oklahoma State· 6'0"· 221 lb· 4.53s 40
"An undersized but explosive WILL linebacker who led the Big 12 in tackles, Martin's NFL success hinges on whether his elite trigger speed and special teams value can offset his struggles shedding blocks."Pre-draft read
Martin is a downhill, trigger-first off-ball linebacker who plays in straight lines and gets to the football before it can get away from him. He diagnoses run keys fast, presses the line and attacks the near shoulder of the block instead of waiting to be found — how a 221-pound linebacker piled up 16 tackles for loss in one season. The tackling is form-first and secure in space.
The secondary trait is blitz value: he times interior pressure well and had six sacks from the second level in 2023. Coverage is trusted zone work — good depth, quick eyes to the quarterback, real closing burst on the checkdown. He is light for the position, so the profile lives on speed and angles, not on stacking blocks. The signature is the motor.
One-gap, penetrate-and-run 4-3 that keeps the linebackers clean and asks them to flow fast to the ball in zone coverage.
Year 1: core special-teamer and sub-package blitzer. Ceiling: three-down WILL starter next to a rangy MIKE.
A two-gap, big-body front that leaves him unblocked-by-design at 221 pounds and asks him to take on pulling guards at the point of attack.
Everything works when someone else eats the block.
2025 NFL Draft Highlights: Nick Martin, LB, Oklahoma State
Pre-draft reel showing downhill trigger, second-level blitzes and open-field tackling.
Nick Martin Oklahoma State Highlights
Cowboys tape from the 140-tackle 2023 season, including TFLs and zone-drop plays.
Nick Martin: This is What Every Linebacker Dreams Of
Draft-day feature from the 49ers on the third-round linebacker.
Martin spent two years as a special-teams body at Oklahoma State and then delivered one of the loudest single seasons any linebacker has produced in the Big 12 this decade. He is undersized, twitched-up and fully committed to the downhill part of the job — a heat-seeker who is at his best when the defensive line keeps him clean and lets him run.
The 2023 tape is the whole case: 140 tackles in 14 games, 16 tackles for loss, six sacks and two interceptions, first-team All-Big 12 honors, and a Cowboys team that reached the conference title game. The 2024 follow-up ended after five games and 47 tackles with a season-ending injury, which cost him the chance to prove the breakout was repeatable. He tested well at the Combine — 4.53 at 221 pounds with a 38-inch vertical — but the frame is the flag, and the tape shows him getting stuck on contact when linemen reach the second level.
The board read him as a Day 2 WILL with special-teams equity and a run-and-chase ceiling. San Francisco, thin at linebacker behind Fred Warner and Dee Winters, took him at 75 as a developmental fit for that system.
- 01
Trigger speed
reads run keys and commits downhill instantly, meeting backs at the line rather than absorbing the play and tackling three yards later.
- 02
Production
140 tackles, 16 TFL, six sacks and two interceptions in 2023 earned first-team All-Big 12 honors on a conference title-game team.
- 03
Blitz timing
a genuine pressure threat from depth, picking his lane late and finishing at the quarterback rather than just clogging the pocket.
- 04
Tackling reliability
squares up in the open field, wraps and drives, with very little wasted contact for a linebacker who plays this fast.
- 05
Athletic testing
4.53 forty and a 38-inch vertical at 221 pounds back up the sideline-to-sideline range the tape already showed.
- 01
Play strength
light at 221 pounds and gets displaced when guards and tackles climb clean to him; he escapes blocks rather than defeating them.
- 02
Block deconstruction
hand usage at the second level is undeveloped, so he too often runs around traffic and gives up the gap he was assigned.
- 03
Man coverage
comfortable in zone but stiff turning and running with tight ends and backs on vertical routes out of the backfield.
- 04
Sample size
one full season of high-level production, with a season-ending 2024 injury after five games leaving the profile thinly proven.
Relative Athletic Score (Kent Lee Platte) benchmarks combine/pro-day numbers against every measured prospect at the position since 1987. 10.00 is elite; 5.00 is average.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.53sp50
- Vertical
- 38inp50
- Broad jump
- 123inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- 26repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Oklahoma State | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | Oklahoma State | 13 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | Oklahoma State | 14 | 140 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| 2024 | Oklahoma State | 5 | 47 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| Career | — | 35 | 203 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
First-team All-Big 12 in 2023. 2024 season ended after five games with injury. Source: cfbstats.com.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Rotational fast-flow linebacker who earns snaps through special teams and sub packages.
The system's own template: undersized, instinctive, plays faster than his weight suggests.
Athletic special-teams linebacker who never carves out a defensive role.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
San Francisco brought him along slowly. A calf injury cost him most of training camp, and once healthy he was buried behind Fred Warner and Dee Winters in a defense that rarely rotates linebackers. His rookie year came out to seven games, zero starts, 11 tackles and 15 defensive snaps — three percent of the defense — against 74 special-teams snaps, and it ended early when the 49ers placed him on injured reserve on December 20. He was activated in February 2026, but year one produced almost no defensive evidence either way.
That is not a verdict on the pick so much as a delay of it. Third-round linebackers behind an All-Pro rarely play, and the 49ers were explicitly buying a future starter rather than an immediate one. What the pick still needs is proof that the 2023 breakout was the player and the 2024 injury was the noise. Until Martin gets real defensive snaps, the evaluation stays exactly where it was on draft night: fast, productive, undersized and unfinished.
Data note: First-team All-Big 12 in 2023. 2024 season ended after five games with injury. Source: cfbstats.com.