Michigan's commitment list for 2022 is back up to two, as—stop me if you've heard this before—the top prospect of Don Brown country chose the Wolverines.

While it's at least another couple of years before he could see the field in Ann Arbor, we've known the name Tyler Martin a long time—like long enough that we thought he'd be a factor in pushing Zak Zinter to Michigan. Michigan offered him back in spring 2018 as an 8th grader, albeit a 15-year-old 8th grader who was already 6'3"/227. Even then people were talking like there's deep history between the parties:

The Wolverines were a major topic of conversation for a lot of underclassmen as well. Linebacker Tyler Martin is only a freshman right now but he talked about Michigan like he has been close with that program for years.

That's appropriate considering Martin as a football prospect is right out central casting for The Teams podcast.

GURU RATINGS

Rivals	ESPN	247	247 Comp
4*, 5.9, #106 OVR, #3 ILB, #1 MA	4*, 80, #290 OVR, #7 ILB, #1 MA, #37 East	3*, 85, #24 ILB, #3 MA	4*, 0.9037, #271 OVR, #10 ILB, #1 MA
4.55*	4.11*	3.61*	4.04*

Bottom row is my conversion of the above to a 5-star scale

Clearly there's some discrepancy; 247 has him deep in Desmond Morgan meh 3* territory while Rivals places Martin just outside the top-100, on par with a Joe Bolden. It's 2022 so rankings are pretty young; the Rivals jump happened in late March, at which point Martin made their early Top-100. 24/7 hasn't moved him since he got the middling 3* score in late March. ESPN's is newly minted from late August, bumping the composite score out of 3.7-star territory. He remains the only player from Massachusetts that ESPN has in its 2022 database. FWIW the account that follows Massachusetts high school football for 480 Michigan fans has Martin the #1 player in state this year as well.

The sites also disagree on size. ESPN says 6'3"/230, 24/7 says 6'3"/238, and Rivals has him an inch shorter but up to 249.

[Hit THE JUMP for scouting, video, and the rest.]

SCOUTING

For all the head start the early offer gave us for a 2022 guy there's very little scouting out there. Also complicating matters, Martin separated his shoulder early last season, which he admits affected his play. For a thunk-ya linebacker I understand how. I also understand why I didn't make it in football.

After scouring the free articles on the two main sites I found only this from Brandon Brown (then at Rivals) at a 2019 New Jersey camp:

Martin is a massive kid for a freshman. He weighed in at 240 pounds and just has a strong, thick body for such a young football player. He's very strong and definitely is a pads-on kind of backer but he did very well in coverage. His change of direction is sufficient and he really covers a lot of ground in a straight line. He broke up several deep balls on the day with good recovery speed and instincts after falling behind on a couple of reps. It'll be interesting to see just how big he gets and if that "ILB" next to his name will change to something else.

The account that covers Massachusetts high school football for 480 Michigan fans is effusive in explaining their ranking (photo from this IG leads the post):

By far the best player in Massachusetts in the class of 2022 and possibly the best player in the state, Martin is a man among boys … incredible athleticism and speed. Able to track and take down running backs with ease, has good awareness when dropping back into coverage and can also lay down the hammer when needed.

"Best player in the state" includes 2021s like high-4* target Drew Kendall, and current Michigan commits Louis Hansen, TJ Guy, and Casey Phinney. They've had a couple of years to decide that since Martin's been starting for varsity since his freshman year:

Said BB&N coach Mike Willey, “We thought he could play on the varsity. He ended up starting at linebacker and he led the team in tackles. He did a great job for us at inside linebacker. In the offseason, he’s been such a hard worker, he’s done a lot in the weight room, on the track and in the practice field.”

The article mentions basketball and baseball in which Martin starred for a state title team when he as a kid. Also on board the Martin express—and no idea where they dug him up—is Tom Lemming.

The other end of the spectrum is 24/7. The eval by Brian Dohn clearly sees a ceiling:

Strong, thick build ideal for inside linebacker. Can bulk up and play on the defensive line or can drop weight and play linebacker. Has mentality to play inside the box as a linebacker. Strength is already an asset. Plays physical with little wasted movement. Sorts through traffic to get to ball carrier. Takes on blocks and disengages well. Intelligent player. Prepares well. Top end spend a concern. Has to show he can get to the edge against elite competition. Work on lateral movement is needed. Improvement needed in depth drops in coverage. Power 5 starter.

Martin confirmed he's being targeted for the WILL position in several recruiting articles. Behind the paywall though, Rivals' EJ Holland got out to Delaware for a camp this summer (and is out East right now—respect that guy's hustle), and I can clip a bit of his thoughts($):

Obviously, he’s a huge kid and is built for actual football settings as opposed to events like this. Still, I thought Martin was quick and moved well for his size when going in a straight line. Martin did have a little bit of trouble changing direction. I loved him in pads last year. He’s a physical downhill striker that was an absolute monster in the middle. He also covered well and was deceptively athletic at fullback.

Holland also showed his work by tweeting the videos. Subscribers get them condensed here($) and the rest of you can use a Twitter query. Modern Brandon Brown, now at Maven, also went to the fullback thought:

Martin is the epitome of a football player. He's big, strong, hard nosed and really loves contact. He actually reminds me quite a bit of Ben Mason because of his size, strength, mentality and ability to play multiple positions on both sides of the ball.

Like Mason, Martin is a better athlete than you'd think given his stature, which shows up in the form of big plays. Whether it's tackles for loss, big hits at the line of scrimmage, pursuing ball carriers with bad intentions or even making impressive grabs and scoring touchdowns on offense, Martin just plays ball. He's been a big time target for Michigan for several years now because of those skills and the Wolverines recruited him aggressively as a result.

OFFERS

Arkansas, Virginia Tech, Nebraska, BC, UVA, Cuse, Vandy, and Dartmouth. According to Dohn, several other big schools with interest pulled back after the separated shoulder. Wisconsin tried to get him on campus in spring but COVID. Also of note: as of July the new BC staff was still considering whether to re-offer($) according to 247 BC recruiting guy Tyler Calvaruso, though given the BC buzz after his visit there last March that decision might have been "if you're just going to Michigan…" Martin camped at Notre Dame last year and camped in June with Penn State but left both without an offer. Contextually I assume Ohio State is one of the schools that pulled off after the injury.

HIGH SCHOOL

From Zak Zinter's Hello post in May 2019:

Buckingham Brown & Nichols is a British law firm. It's also a school in Andover, Massachusetts full of like, barons and earls and stuff? They've sent the occasional two or three star prospect to BC, Wake, Stanford Northwestern, or Harvard. Zinter is the biggest prospect they've had since the dawn of the Rivals database.

That also mentions Martin's offer.

STATS

Couldn't find any.

FAKE 40 TIME

No 40 time.

VIDEO

Sophomore year:

And due to its unprecedented relevance here's a freshman season:

Individual game clips are available on his Hudl page.

Clips from the Rivals camp:

Congratulations to Rivals Camp alum Tyler Martin (@tylermartin5bbn) on being one of the first four-stars in the Class of 2022

pic.twitter.com/c3N5aoMALz

— Rivals Camp Series (@RivalsCamp) March 31, 2020

100% HARBAUGH BAIT WORKOUT VIDEO?

✔.

Commitment Day... Friday, September 11th at 6:15pm. ™️ pic.twitter.com/JmCGIXMxkq

— Tyler Martin (@tylermartin5bbn) September 8, 2020

ETC. Is his team's long-snapper. Grew up an Irish fan because grandpa went to Notre Dame. Subject of a "No Days Off" episode on Whistle, a 2M-subscriber Youtube channel. Sister Molly (2022 PSU commit) was on the US Soccer U-14 girls' national team. Mom is athletic director at Lexington High. Dad is a coach and participant in the family TikToks. Dead ringer for Mike Trout. Plans to enroll early.

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE

I very much get the rankings based on how the sites write them; 24/7 wants to nail pro potential, Rivals likes guys who are the most field-ready, and ESPN tends to freeze guys wherever they stood at a certain point in their recruitment which just happens to be last week for us.

Massachusetts Law Firm Football and the injury make this a tough scout unless you've watched a lot of Bo Schembechler-era defenses, when this type of extra-large person who always knew where to be and was just fast enough to get there was called "Jim Scarcelli." They also tended to get rated high and early because you can't help but notice the 6'3"/250 person on a football field full of MIT peoples' kids, especially when your freak appears to have hacked into the opponent's playbook. When Martin gets his arms on them they get tackled—no more yards, just tackled—but they're also half his size, man.

The "he's stiff" stuff is going to follow, and no he's not Devin Bush. Except in one aspect: there are several plays in the highlight reel (e.g. 3:45) in which Martin clearly sniffed out what the playcall was going to be and murdered it. A guy who can do that in college can start in the middle of an MSU defense and wreck stuff, even if the NFL isn't that interested. That guy also gets a lot of coach love—think Desmond Morgan plus 3 inches. Martin never looks confused out there, even for a microsecond. If the Buckeye Doom Spread wasn't the only measuring stick these days you'd say yes please.

Since it is however, we have to share 24/7's concerns about how this throwback would fare in the Big XII, and for that we're talking either a full defensive line conversion (Brennan Beyer, Craig Roh) or something like a 404 Tite weakside linebacker. You're going to hate the comparison here but Casey Phinney plays at the other "are you sure that's not a law firm" school in the league so everyone who scouted one did so the other, and Martin is a larger and faster version of that type of guy. I bring him up because I've been downloading the Tao of 3-2-6 base football, which uses a WLB who's got enough size that he can push a lineman like a lineman on frequent blitzes (one example of this at ~4m). We're calling that SAM at Michigan at the moment but a better example is what Army was doing to Michigan's arc read package last year. The role takes good straight-line acceleration, good zone coverage, and good explosion when set at the edge of the defense, but not the squirrelly kind of change-of-direction while moving that the Michigan MIKE spot values so highly.

That kind of player can always keep growing—if Martin's already 250, those long arms and straight-line burst could see him grow into a defensive end. That transition doesn't usually work out, and would be kind of a shame because Martin's two elite attributes are size and awareness.

Note that the two four-man linebacker classes are now essentially the same class, so the path to the field after 2022 is going to come down to a lot of things we don't know regarding how the latest generation shakes out.

Some of the film is at tight end, where Martin made a few contested catches and looked even more terrifying. I know fullbacks aren't technically a thing anymore but the 1990s brain can't help but think of the ol' archetype of 6'3" thunker who'd occasionally leak into a flat, get a head of steam, and get dangerous. Yeah, BENCH, basically.

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS

Made their two layups, lot of game to go. Cornerback—which unlike recent classes seems to have a lot of elite options starting with Michigan at or near the top of their lists—is the main priority with DT and an elite pass-rusher. As for linebackers, Michigan has the early lead with in-state four-stars Joshua Burnham and West Bloomfield's Michael Williams, a typical ND/Michigan battle brewing for almost-top-150 viper Sebastian Cheeks, and is in the hunt for super-fast SC 4* Jaylen Sneed.