2023 Lions draft recap: Don’t sleep on Brodric Martin’s explosiveness

The Detroit Lions surprised a lot of people when they traded up back into the third round of the 2023 NFL Draft to take Western Kentucky defensive tackle Brodric Martin. In fact, Martin was caught off guard, too. While setting up for a Day 3 draft party—when he was expecting to get drafted—he received the call from Detroit and went running to his family to tell them the good news.

To get a better understanding of what the Lions saw in Martin, we had a chat with someone who has been covering the 330-pound nose tackle for the past two years. Drew Toennies of the Western Kentucky Rivals site joined our podcast this week for a 25-minute chat to give us everything he knows about the Lions third-round pick.

The physicality in Martin’s game is obvious to anyone who sees Martin in person or even on tape—it’s hard to miss a 330-pound player with a massive 83-inch wingspan. But Toennies told us not to overlook his speed and explosiveness for a man his size.

“I think some of his explosiveness and pass rush could flash early (in the NFL),” Toennies told us. “I think that he’s good at finding weaknesses in the offensive line.”

Toennies also spoke very highly of Martin’s character, noting his increased leadership role last season, and his rigorous work ethic in the lead up to his pro day.

“Especially when it comes to helping with a lot of the transfers that would come on the team, he was more of a leadership type of person. He kinda helped them with that transition and was more involved on defense,” Toennies said. “Even his relationship with the newest defensive coordinator—the defensive coordinator was telling me he came down before his pro day, about a week earlier, he was getting work outs on the field.”

You can listen to our short conversation below. You can also check out Toennies’ interview with Martin from his pro day over at the Western Kentucky Rivals site.

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