There are 6 days left until the start of the Carolina Panthers 2025 schedule, so today’s countdown piece is about number 6 in your program, punter Sam Martin.
Before the Panthers
The Panthers punter has some ties to the Carolinas as he played his college ball at Appalachian State from 2009-2012. While at App State he emerged as the nation’s best punter and was named First Team Associated Press All-American. Given his college exploits he was selected in the fifth round of the 2013 NFL Draft by the Detroit
Lions, a notable feat for a punter to be drafted that high.
Martin won the starting job his rookie year and was named to the 2013 FWA All-Rookie Team for his performance. He spent the first seven seasons of his NFL career with the Lions. In 2020 he departed for the Denver Broncos and spent two seasons there before joining the Buffalo Bills in 2022, spending the past three seasons winning games and freezing his butt of in Buffalo.
In 12 NFL seasons he has 755 career punts averaging 46.2 yards per punt. Over the course of his career he has been a consistently good punter, but has yet to make a Pro Bowl.
Martin’s role with the Panthers
The 35-year-old veteran signed a 1-year, $1.6 million contract with the Panthers this past offseason. He will be the team’s starting punter. He replaces Johnny Hekker who held that job for the past three years and is now with the Tennessee Titans. In three seasons with the Panthers Hekker averaged 47.0 yards per punt, so nearly a yard longer than Martin’s career average of 46.2.
Martin’s role with this iteration of the Carolina Panthers is an important one. While the Panthers offense has talent at wide receiver, that talent is young and largely unproven. Carolina hasn’t had a viable tight end receiving option since Greg Olsen in 2019. Quarterback Bryce Young has been up and down (and now back on the upswing!) in his first two NFL seasons.
If the Panthers passing game bogs down at times, Sam Martin is going to be called upon to flip field position more often than Carolina fans would like to admit.
