Las Vegas Raiders Expectation: Brodric Martin

The Raiders claimed DT Brodric Martin off waivers on Thursday, and the former Detroit Lions third rounder now heads to Las Vegas where in year three he’s only logged 63 career snaps. Martin stands at an impressive 6’5, 330 and plays, as expected, your traditional 0/1 tech as a true nose tackle. Originally a consensus 5th round prospect, Martin didn’t blow anyone away in the pre draft process with his athletic testing outside of his height/weight combination, and despite that he was still selected 96th overall by the Detroit Lions in 2023. Martin lod 62 tackles, 6 TFL, 4 sacks, 3 PBU, and a FF in college along with 40 pressures (23 in final season), 46 stops, and a 56.1% run stop win rate.

Initially, things were not great for Martin as he logged just 28 snaps his rookie season, 25 his 2nd year, and then was waived to start the 2025 season before landing on the Chiefs practice squad. Martin was then signed by the Steelers appearing in one game where he logged 10 snaps, 1 tackle, and a stop before being waived, and now landing with the Raiders. Martin clearly hasn’t caught his stride yet in the NFL, a large part due to the Lions having added Alim McNeil and DJ Reader, both of which play the same traditional 0-2 tech as Martin which limited his real path to opportunities. Martin paired his size with outstanding strength and length showcasing phenomenal anchor ability in the run game. Additionally, Martin had quick powerful hands, strong core strength and upper body power in addition to a good plethora of hand moves and some shocking lateral quickness. Martin did also struggle with his pad level, consistently getting too high while also not having the best first step off the LOS. Martin struggled to get lateral and horizontal, didn’t showcase a ton of bend, twitch, or ankle flexibility to really turn the corner in situations and seemed like the traditional short yardage, early down run defender in the NFL as a rotational guy.

The Raiders waived Leki Fotu, who had served a role as the Raiders nose tackle playing roughly 90 snaps in that role in addition to Adam Butler who’s played nearly 60% of the Raiders nose tackle snaps this season. Las Vegas has seen Jonah Laulu and rookie JJ Pegues also earn some snaps at nose tackle but Las Vegas has really struggled to see anyone consistently get snaps at nose and when they do be a productive player. The Raiders have lacked a true nose tackle since letting John Jenkins walk in free agency, who has been phenomenal for the Ravens this season. The Raiders did add JJ Pegues with the expectation he would transition to a nose tackle role though the Ole Miss product likely needs the season to consistently add weight and make the transition after being a traditional 3/4 tech at Ole Miss. Martin doesn’t have the best track record to bank on with his lack of snap counts, poor athletic testing, and relatively very poor lack of production. Martin will likely come in and play either the last three games, or just the last two, and in those he could see the ability to earn a career high in snap counts both per game and in a season. The expectations aren’t really that high for Martin, he hasn’t shown much, and likely is on the way out after this season regardless but defensive line coach Rob Leonard has a track record of building players careers and Martin could benefit from a strong coaching situation. High expectations for Martin likely will be let down, but the former Hilltopper does showcase some good traits that leaves a little room for intrigue even at this point in his career.