Jonathan Martin missed three week of 49ers camp, no one noticed
By Josh Hill
Jonathan Martin is trying to get back into shape to make sure that his debut with the San Francisco 49ers is one that erases the memory of what we went through with the Miami Dolphins, but his tenure with the team is off to an irrelevant start.
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After trading for Martin at the start of free agency this year, the San Francisco 49ers apparently didn’t really notice that Martin had missed the first three weeks of camp due to a bout with mono. Still, whether Pro Football Talk was joking or not, the battle is an uphill climb for Martin regardless of whether his absence went unnoticed or not.
“I just have to get back in shape,” he said, via the Associated Press. “The biggest thing is timing, getting your hands down and footwork back. I lost a little bit of weight. That’s what I worked on last week.”
Martin needs to make himself relevant on this 49ers offense as he has a lot riding on this chance in San Francisco. He’s been protected from the bullying scandal in Miami but if he doesn’t play above and beyond where he was with the Dolphins then he will be very quickly written off.
That has nothing to do with the scandal either, it’s simply a way of life in the NFL. Colin Kapernick just recently became a very expensive asset to the 49ers, and protecting him will be much more important for Martin than overcoming any adversity he’s suffered up to this point. He’s already an easy target, so the better he absorbs blows on Sundays for Kaepernick, the quicker we’ll move on from associating him with the Dolphins scandal.