Seahawks Rookie Roundup: Has seventh-round pick already lost RB battle?

The Seattle Seahawks began training camp on Wednesday, July 23, officially kicking off the second season under head coach Mike Macdonald. Seattle's rookie class — draft pick and undrafted free agent alike — will be among the most closely watched additions to the team during camp.

This season, the Seahawks began camp with 29 total rookies on their 90-man roster. As camp progresses, we will profile each of the team's first-year players and project their chances of making the final 53-man roster in late August. After stating Seahawks fans "got another Beast Mode" after being drafted, Damien Martinez has massive shoes to fill if he hopes to live up to that hype.

Path to the NFL

Martinez was rated a three-star prospect by 247Sports out of Lewisville High School in Texas. He committed to Oregon State as part of the 2022 recruiting class over offers from Kansas, San Diego State, Georgia Tech and Texas State.

In his first season with the Beavers, Martinez immediately made an impact. He totaled 982 rushing yards and seven touchdowns on 161 carries (6.1 yards per attempt). The punishing rusher had his breakout game against Colorado as a freshman, exploding for 22 carries, 178 yards and three touchdowns in a win. Martinez built off that effort in 2023, posting 194 attempts for 1,185 yards (6.1 yards per attempt and nine touchdowns.

Martinez was a two-time All-Pac 12 First Team selection due to his impressive numbers on the ground with the Beavers.

The Beavers won 18 games in Martinez's two years with the team. However, even with that boost of winning games, he transferred to Miami before the 2024 season. Martinez had arguably his best season yet against top competition, totaling 159 carries for 1,002 yards (6.3 yards per attempt) and 10 scores — the first 1,000-yard campaign by a Miami running back since 2016. He also had 204 receiving yards on 17 catches.

The Seahawks selected Martinez with the 223rd overall pick in the seventh round of the 2025 NFL Draft. He was the only running back the team drafted this season.

Outlook

Although he has a unique running style that resembles the powerful, paced attack of Seahawks legend Marshawn Lynch, Martinez disappointed in his lone preseason appearance thus far on Thursday, Aug. 7. Martinez finished the tie with the Las Vegas Raiders with just six carries for 10 yards and two catches for 15 yards. Three other Seahawks running backs received at least six carries and all finished with more than 20 yards.

His main competition is George Holani, a second-year former undrafted free agent out of Boise State. Holani was electric against the Raiders, taking seven carries for 61 yards on the ground, and tacking on a 20-yard catch. Martinez showed very little flash and was routinely getting tangled up at the line of scrimmage. However, players are bound to have bad days, and Martinez is still just 21 years old — a rarity among late-round rookies nowadays.

Martinez and Holani are competing for the third running back spot behind Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet. Whoever loses that battle will likely be the fourth (probably on the practice squad) unless undrafted rookie Jacardia Wright continues to impress (7 carries, 34 yards, TD against Raiders).

He will likely be kept on the practice squad regardless, but Martinez is a cut candidate before being brought back there. These next few weeks will be critical for him to show off his skill set.