It’s easy to forget that Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Doug Martin caught 49 passes as a rookie in 2012. It’s so easy that even the new coaching staff and front office came in not counting on Martin as a pass catcher.
“In the offseason, that was an area that we talked about,’’ coach Lovie Smith said Monday. “We went into the draft because we thought that was an area where we thought we needed a little bit of help.’’
The Bucs used a third-round pick to draft Charles Sims, who caught more than 200 passes in his college career. But Sims isn’t going to be contributing right away. He suffered an ankle injury last week that’s going to keep him out for 12 to 14 weeks.
Along the way, though, the Bucs might have found a running back they’re comfortable with as a pass catcher. That’s Martin.
Smith admitted Martin’s pass-catching game has been better than expected. You'll find a lot of different opinions of Martin on draft day most likely, with not a lot of in between - there are those who love him and those who are scared to death to draft him. His third round ADP still makes him a pretty attractive back at that point in drafts, and we have him ranked 13th on our PPR list. We think he loses some work to Bobby Rainey and Mike James, but still ending up as a RB2.
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