Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Doug Martin may have endangered his NFL career after his poor performance in during the game against the Carolina Panthers.
Martin was benched during the second half of the game after looking horrible in pass protection. According to Steve Gallo, the athlete was benched not because of an injury but rather because of his poor pass protection.
Greg Cosell discussed the issue on 98.7 The Fan today saying "I was disappointed in him in all areas. I think he looked very stiff as a runner. I don't think that he looked like he has much looseness in his hips. In some ways he kind of reminded me of what we've seen out of Trent Richardson. Just very stiff. And the most disconcerting thing, which will limit his snaps if it continues, is he was terrible in pass protection. And that will limit his snaps."
According to Cosell, this has been a common mistake made by Martin which usually happens to rookies and that Martin should have gotten over this years ago. Because of this, the Bucs used D.J. Ware and Brian Leonard in passing situations under Greg Schiano.
Another concern for the Bucs was Josh McCown's play as it was below his average performance but was able to recover during the last quarter.
According to Cosell "I didn't think he played particularly well. I thought he was a little undisciplined in the pocket regarding his footwork, his movement, his reads. He didn't pull the trigger on a number of throws that were there. One thing that really stood out to me was that he had a tendency to climb the pocket when he doesn't need to, and when you do that you create your own pressure."
He continued "The [Greg] Hardy sack in the second quarter and the forced fumble, that was a first-and-ten shot play and they got when he wanted. [Mike] Evans ran the deep over route and that ball needed to be thrown. But when McCown go to the top of his drop, his feet weren't set. He wasn't prepared to deliver the football. So by the time he was getting prepared to deliver the football, the timing of the throw was gone. And to me he created his own sack there."
Greg Cosell is an NFL analyst and a senior producer at NFL Films. He is the nephew of iconic broadcaster Howard Cosell. Cosell is widely regarded by NFL insiders as one of the most knowledgeable and trusted football analysts.
