Chatard's Zack Martin should go early in NFL draft Thursday
A record 30 top prospects will be in New York's Radio City Music Hall for the first round of the NFL Draft on Thursday, including five offensive tackles. Zack Martin will not be among them.
He was invited. He respectfully declined.
Indianapolis' hometown All-American preferred being home. He will be with Mom and Dad, brothers Josh and Nick, relatives, friends and teammates from Chatard High School and Notre Dame.
That kind of preference might be a factor in why a couple of the draft's top analysts begin their assessment of Martin thusly:
"I love the kid," NFL Network's Mike Mayock said.
"I love Zack," ESPN's Todd McShay echoed.
Martin's representative, super-agent Tom Condon, a former NFL offensive lineman offered more in the same vein. He characterized Martin as "the epitome of the client we want to represent."
Man crushes aside, the draft is an exercise in unpredictability but McShay thinks Martin could go in the top dozen picks.
"He is your classic plug-in-and-play-right-away guy in this league," McShay said.
"Even though I have him fourth at tackle, he'd be my No. 1 center or my No. 1 guard," said Mayock, who projects Martin going between 9 and 13. "I believe that he is the only player in this draft who could start and play at a high level at all five offensive line positions."
Left tackle is one of the pass-dominant NFL's three or four most critical positions. Left tackles went No. 1, 2, 4 and 11 in the 2013 draft, when offensive linemen accounted for six of the first 11 picks.
Left tackle is where Martin started for four seasons at Notre Dame and where the three linemen Mayock and McShay rank above him all played. They are Texas A&M's Jake Matthews, Auburn's Greg Robinson and Michigan's Taylor Lewan.
As far as Martin is concerned, call him anything — left or right tackle, guard or center — but call him early.
"I think I can play left tackle and play it at a high level," he said, "but I'm not going to throw a fit if somebody drafts me to play another position."
The man, the model
Vince Lorenzano, whose six Class 3A titles as Chatard head coach include two with Martin at left tackle (2006 and '07), estimated 60 college recruiters have visited Chatard this year. Many, Lorenzano said, so liked and coveted Martin they still talk about him.
Notre Dame's Brian Kelly got him.
Kelly redshirted Martin as a freshman, then plugged him in at left tackle. Over the next four years, Martin became a two-time captain and the team's four-time most valuable offensive lineman. Through nicks, tweaks and ouchies, through ankle and shoulder injuries, he started 52 consecutive games, more than any other player in Notre Dame's 127 proud seasons of football.
Fighting Irish offensive line coach Harry Hiestand called him "the picture of what an All-American is."
When an example was required, Notre Dame strength coach Paul Longo, offered, "you point and say, there is Zack Martin."
Kelly went further.
"He's the best offensive lineman I've ever coached, and I've coached some great ones," Kelly said after the Irish beat Rutgers in the Pinstripe Bowl and Martin became the first offensive lineman in a half century to be named MVP of a bowl game.
Kelly's coaching credits include Joe Staley, a 2007 first-round pick of the San Francisco 49ers, who has been elected to the Pro Bowl each off the past three seasons.
Kelly calls Martin "the model" and speaks of his legacy. He extols his leadership.
As a senior, Martin played on a line manned by three first-year starters: Martin's brother, Nick, a redshirt junior center; sophomore right tackle Ronnie Stanley, and a pair of guards, freshman Steve Elmer and junior Conor Hanratty, who started eight games between them as injury replacements.
That group yielded eight sacks in 13 games, second fewest in the NCAA Division I. Martin was everyone's big brother, mentor and coach.
"I call it the 'Larry Bird effect,' " Kelly said. "An offensive lineman can make others around him better."
Count on me
Martin has missed a single game since third grade, that as a high school junior when he had mononucleosis.
Fifty-two consecutive starts (50 at left tackle, two at right tackle) shouts accountability. It shouts: "I will be there for you every Saturday." It shouts toughness, and Martin inherited some. His father, Keith, was an Academic All-Southeastern Conference defensive tackle for Kentucky in 1982.
"His mom is as tough as his dad, in my opinion," Lorenzano said. "They're the kind of family you want to walk down an alley with: Tough people, smart people, classy people, all in the same breath."
Zack laughed.
"Mom is always the one who busts my chops after a game," said Martin, who yielded a single sack in his final two Notre Dame seasons. "If I got beat on a play, the first thing she says to me is, 'You got beat there.' She gives it to me just as much as my dad."
Said Mom: "I know a little about football, so we're going to hold him accountable.
"It's about doing your best and trying to be a good teammate and being a good example and sticking with things."
Of bricks and brickbats
Martin earned his degree in Management Entrepreneurship from Notre Dame's Mendoza School of Business a year ago. He spent last fall taking graduate classes.
He has spent the past 4½ months training at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., playing in the Senior Bowl, attending the NFL Scouting Combine, conducting private workouts for seven NFL teams and flying in for personal visits with the general managers, head coaches, offensive coordinators and line coaches of four more, none of whom he will identify.
Martin has been measured, poked, prodded and probed. On one of his team visits he was taken to a room, seated in front of a television camera and asked to enumerate the ways he might use a brick.
"Go!" The session was timed.
To build a house or use as a paperweight, Martin suggested, or, possibly in deference to Mom's toughness, to throw through a window or slug someone in the head.
Martin doesn't know his "brick grade" but about the only criticism anyone has made is his arm length, 32 7/8 inches as measured at the combine. "The 'Mendoza Line' with tackles," McShay said, is "33 or more and really 34 or more for obvious reasons: It just makes it harder (for a pass rusher) to get around the guy."
We are talking meager distinctions here. Matthews' arms measured 33 3/8 inches, Lewan's 33 7/8, and Robinson, the most athletic of the top tackles, 35.
Whatever, Martin's bricks are in a row.
He will wait Thursday evening with former Chatard teammates who call him "Goblin" or "Gob" because of a perceived resemblance to a character in the video game "Goblin Commander." He will wait with the family that loves him and calls him "Z" or "Z-Man."
He will wait for the NFL to call him a Falcon, a Bill, a Giant or whatever. He probably won't wait long.
Email Star reporter Phil Richards at phil.richards@indystar.com and follow him on Twitter at @philrichards6.