Jan 2, 2012; Glendale, AZ, USA; Oklahoma State Cowboys safety Markelle Martin (10) before the game against the Stanford Cardinal in the 2012 Fiesta Bowl at University of Phoenix Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jennifer Hilderbrand-USA TODAY Sports

It’s hard to review a player who couldn’t get on the field, so I’m going to focus on his positional group instead. If there’s any group from the Tennessee Titans that needs work it’s the safeties. On one side of the field we had Michael Griffin, the epitome of an enigma. On the other, it was a rotation of Jordan Babineaux, who failed to recapture his decent form of 2011, and Robert Johnson, who just isn’t very good at this point. Sprinkled in with a little Al Afalava, and this group was one of the reasons that the Titans defense was incredibly mediocre.

At times, Griffin was put in a position to fail. He isn’t an in-the-box guy. He has good range and can locate the ball in the air, so he should be put back deep. To allow this, we needed a safety that could play the run well and cover tight ends and slot receiver. Safe to say, we didn’t have that throughout the whole year. And really, for the past few years.

It would seem to be essential for the Titans to either draft a young, stud safety (Matt Elam, DJ Swearinger) or sign a proven, dependable guy, which would probably be harder to find. But if they don’t, then perhaps they believe that Markelle Martin can be the answer. He might just be. He was pretty damn good at Oklahoma State before having knee problems that caused him to drop to the sixth round of the 2012 draft and subsequently miss his first season as a rookie. Still, he might be an option. I hope he is, but we’ll find out soon enough.

GRADE: To Be Determined

Tune in Tuesday for TE Taylor Thompson’s review.

Jan 2, 2012; Glendale, AZ, USA; Stanford Cardinal wide receiver Ty Montgomery (88) is tackled by Oklahoma State Cowboys safety Markelle Martin (10) in the second half at the 2012 Fiesta Bowl at University of Phoenix Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jennifer Stewart-US PRESSWIRE

The Tennessee Titans drafted FS Markelle Martin, one of the top safety prospects, in the 6th round of the 2012 NFL Draft. It was a steal, though one of the reasons he fell so far was due to a knee injury he suffered during drill at the Senior Bowl. The injury to his knee eventually resulted in surgery, which prevented him from participating in preseason and has kept him on IR thus far.

From the sound of it though, he may be coming off soon:

@titan_sized good, should be able or participate in practice next week and from there its coaches decision

— Markelle Martin (@MarkelleMar10) October 10, 2012

The Titans are pretty unspectacular at the safety position as of now, with Michael Griffin struggling in pass coverage and Robert Johnson failing to impress. Jordan Babineaux has been the only consistent player there thus far, but they still need more.

The Titans haven’t yet used the leagues new rule of taking a player back off IR, and Martin has looked like the ideal candidate for a while, so I expect them to take him off and to see him on the field in the next few weeks.

We’ll see how long it takes for him to catch up. I’d guess he’s had his nose in the playbook waiting for that leg to heal up.

This all is reliant upon the fact that his knee looks good enough to the coaches that they think he can contribute this season without doing harm to it They could just pull the plug on it and save him for next year. Sometimes safe is better than sorry.

It’s just hard not to want to see what this guy has when the safeties are struggling so mightly.

In Munchak we trust… Right?

You can find me on Twitter @JustinLStewart

Jan 2, 2012; Glendale, AZ, USA; Stanford Cardinal running back Stepfan Taylor (33) stiff-arms Oklahoma State Cowboys safety Markelle Martin (10) while running in the fourth quarter of a game against the st os in the 2012 Fiesta Bowl at University of Phoenix Stadium. The Cowboys won 41-38 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Chris Morrison-US PRESSWIRE

It would appear that the Tennessee Titans FS Markelle Martin will be having surgery on his knee. This comes on the heels of Martin being placed on the PUP list by the Tennessee Titans. He tweeted this about 15 minutes ago:

Look how close he is. Got me dyin on the way to surgery twitter.com/MarkelleMar10/…

— Markelle Martin (@MarkelleMar10) July 25, 2012

He replied to one of the people asking questions about it:

@jtchilcoat8 same knee. This time, I will have time to correctly rehab

— Markelle Martin (@MarkelleMar10) July 25, 2012

Dang. Two guys getting work on their knees. Hopefully his recovery goes well, but this certainly doesn’t make it look like we’ll be seeing him too soon. No need to rush a young player onto the field when his knee is weak.

You need to treat those things well if you want a long career in the NFL.

We don’t know to what extent the surgery is, whether it is just being scoped or having more serious work done. When we find out, we’ll let you know.

You can find me on Twitter @JustinLStewart