Green Bay Packers: Kamal Martin to Miss Time with Knee Surgery

Rookie LB Kamal Martin was putting together a fine camp, but now the Green Bay Packers will be without him for a few weeks.

With the Green Bay Packers’ Week 1 matchup with the Minnesota Vikings now less than two weeks away, the team has received some disappointing news that rookie linebacker Kamal Martin has to undergo knee surgery per Rob Demovsky of ESPN.

Now, as Rob points out, the good news is that this isn’t season-ending, but Martin is expected to miss “several weeks.”

Martin has put together a very impressive camp up to this point, finding success in all three phases as a coverage linebacker, a blitzer, and a run-stopper. Matt LaFleur has commented on Martin’s “explosive ability,” while linebacker’s coach, Kirk Olivadotti, said recently that Martin “gets better every day,” and that what he’s learned on the computer is translating to on the field.

Given his impressive performances along with the uncertainty at the linebacker position after Christian Kirksey, prior to this setback, it appeared that Martin was poised to take over as ILB2 come Week 1. But now that role will fall to Ty Summers, who still has to prove he is more than just a special teams player, or Oren Burks, who has once again struggled in camp.

However, the most likely option to fill this role is Raven Greene. Last season the Packers played more than 50 percent of their snaps from a dime formation, which means against Minnesota, Greene will likely spend quite a bit of time next to Kirksey.

While we don’t know exactly how Mike Pettine was going to use Martin, against a Vikings team that relies on the run game, having him on the field could have provided the Packer defense with some extra help.