Martinez ‘Honored to Wear the Green and Gold’

New Giants linebacker Blake Martinez said goodbye to Green Bay via Instagram.

Bill Huber | Mar 18, 2020

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Linebacker Blake Martinez, who agree to a three-year contract with the New York Giants in free agency, big goodbye to the Green Bay Packers.

“I want to say thank you to Green Bay as a whole the @packers, the fans, and my teammates/coaches for giving me the opportunity to start and live out my dream of playing in the NFL!” Martinez said as part of a post on his Instagram account. “I wouldn’t be where I am today without your help and kindness throughout these last four years! I was so honored to wear the green and gold and will always have a place in my heart for Green Bay!”

Martinez agreed to a three-year deal worth $$30 million late Monday night. The Packers, having added veteran Christian Kirksey earlier in the day and with a desire to get faster in the middle, let him go without a fight.

For now, the loss of Martinez might get the Packers a fourth-round compensatory pick in the 2021 draft.

After leading the NFL in tackles in 2017 and ranking second in 2008, Martinez finished second in the league with a career-high 155 tackles in 2019. The coaches’ count was a record 201. He did it while playing the second half of the season with a broken hand. He added three sacks, five tackles for losses, one forced fumble and a key interception in the come-from-behind win at Detroit. Over the last four seasons, Martinez’s 512 tackles trails only Bobby Wagner’s 597. In the 2016 draft class, Martinez has 103 more tackles than anyone else.

Published Mar 18, 2020

BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.