San Francisco 49ers: 5 Players Who Disappointed in 2015
By Peter Panacy
Center Marcus Martin
Second-year center Marcus Martin was asked to step in and fill the void left by fellow center Daniel Kilgore, who suffered an ankle injury in Week 7 of the 2014 season.
Martin, a third-round pick of the 49ers from that year’s draft, was highly touted coming out of USC and was seen as a potential long-term replacement for an interior offensive line position. He got a chance to start in the second half of 2014 and didn’t show much prowess.
And 2015 was even worse.
Martin ended up playing 14 games for the 49ers over the course of the season and finished with a minus-45.6 overall grade according to Pro Football Focus — the lowest out of all San Francisco offensive players last year. PFF also ranked him No. 38 out of 40 qualifying centers.
Kilgore eventually got his starting job back towards the end of the season.
PFF grades #49ers C Marcus Martin as the worst at the C spot, & RG Jordan Devey, lowest amongst 80 starting guards right or left.
— Aussie Guys NFL (@aussieguysnfl) November 5, 2015
Along with fellow O-linemen Erik Pears and Jordan Devey, Martin was seen as one of the primary liabilities the 49ers had on offense.
But Pears and Devey get a bit of a break here. Neither should have been a starter this season but wound up being so thanks to offseason shakeups (thank you, Anthony Davis, for retiring).
Regardless, the 49ers needed to get considerably more production out of their third-round investment. It hasn’t paid off.
At all.
Next: Corey Lemonier