{"id":211131,"date":"2025-01-18T13:30:50","date_gmt":"2025-01-18T18:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=211131"},"modified":"2025-01-18T11:38:54","modified_gmt":"2025-01-18T16:38:54","slug":"2025-nfl-mock-draft-has-colts-taking-damien-martinez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/01\/18\/2025-nfl-mock-draft-has-colts-taking-damien-martinez\/","title":{"rendered":"2025 NFL Mock Draft Has Colts Taking Backup for Jonathan Taylor"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Indianapolis Colts could use a new backup for star running back Jonathan Taylor. Walter Football<\/a> put together a 2025 NFL Mock Draft and they have the Colts taking Miami running back Damien Martinez in the third round (80th overall pick):<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Colts didn\u2019t have a viable backup for Jonathan Taylor when the star running back missed time this year. Damien Martinez is a big downhill runner who can punish tacklers.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Martinez isn\u2019t expected to be as good as Ashton Jeanty<\/a>, who\u2019ll likely be the first running back taken in the 2025 NFL Draft. Yet, he\u2019s undoubtedly one of the draft\u2019s top running back prospects. And it makes sense for the Colts to consider him.<\/p>\n

2025 NFL Mock Draft Has the Indianapolis Colts Selecting Damien Martinez<\/h2>\n

His Collegiate Career<\/h3>\n

Damien Martinez played for Lewisville High School in Lewisville, Texas. He rushed for 4,341 yards and 66 touchdowns during his time there. He then committed to play college football at Oregon State, passing up schools like Kansas, San Diego State, Georgia Tech, and Texas State.<\/sup><\/p>\n

Martinez had a great debut season at Oregon State, rushing for 982 yards and seven touchdowns. He also caught four passes for 61 yards. As a result, he was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and was a member of the All-Pac-12 first team.<\/p>\n

Martinez was spectacular during his sophomore year as well. He rushed for 1,185 yards and nine touchdowns and caught 11 passes for 126 yards. He received first-team All-Pac-12 honors once again.<\/p>\n

Following two years at Oregon State, Martinez transferred to the University of Miami in April 2024. This past season with the Hurricanes, he recorded 1,002 rushing yards, 10 rushing touchdowns, 10 receptions, and a career-high 204 receiving yards.<\/p>\n

Martinez was the first Miami player<\/a> to produce at least 1,000 rushing yards and 10 rushing touchdowns in the same season since Mark Walton did so in 2016. That\u2019s quite impressive, seeing that Martinez split time with Mark Fletcher in the backfield.<\/p>\n

During this season\u2019s Pop-Tarts Bowl<\/a>, Martinez rushed for a career-high 179 yards although Miami lost the game 42-41 to Iowa State. He later announced he would skip his senior year and enter the NFL draft.<\/p>\n

Should the Colts Draft Him?<\/h3>\n

The Colts\u2019 Jonathan Taylor<\/a> is still one of the league\u2019s top running backs. He rushed for 1,431 yards and 11 touchdowns this season. It was his third 1,000-yard campaign and his first Pro Bowl season since 2021.<\/p>\n

Taylor was one of the few bright spots for the Colts, who posted a disappointing 8-9 record and missed the playoffs again. He\u2019s expected to remain in Indianapolis despite former Colt Pat McAfee saying he should be traded<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If Taylor does indeed stick around, Colts general manager Chris Ballard<\/a> will need to find a solid backup for him. Taylor\u2019s backups this season, Trey Sermon<\/a> and Tyler Goodson<\/a>, are decent players, but Damien Martinez could be an upgrade over them.<\/p>\n

Martinez is a big, physical downhill runner, who has a knack for running through contact. Landing him with a third-round pick could be a steal for the Colts in this year\u2019s draft. So yes, Indy should draft him if they have the opportunity.<\/p>\n

Main Photo: Jasen Vinlove – USA Today Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A 2025 NFL Mock Draft has the Indianapolis Colts selecting Damien Martinez to back up star running back Jonathan Taylor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4890,"featured_media":211196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,54,1647],"tags":[32605,33185,7800,6237],"class_list":["post-211131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colts","category-editorials","category-nfl-draft","tag-2025-nfl-draft","tag-damien-martinez","tag-indianapolis-colts-news","tag-jonathan-taylor"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4890"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211131"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211197,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211131\/revisions\/211197"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}