Martinez continuing to address mechanics is a good thing

Nebraska quarterback Taylor Martinez continues to make headlines this offseason for his effort to continue improving his throwing mechanics.

Los Angeles-area quarterback coach Steve Calhoun spent a week with Martinez in the spring and then three more got three more weeks with the junior in May according to a recent Omaha World Herald report. Calhoun helped get Martinez an invite to the mid-July Manning Passing Academy, where Calhoun will work as a camp assistant.

“People are going to be quite surprised in how far he's come in such a short time,” Calhoun told the OWH.

In an effort to get Martinez to become a more complete player, the focus has included but not been limited to improving footwork and accuracy. Hopefully, all of this outside work will help Martinez develop into a solid college quarterback. Better mechanics would add velocity and accuracy to his passes. Going into his third year as a starter, the game must be slowing down for him, too, which will help. He won't be quite as antsy back in the pocket.

As a sophomore, his decision-making as a passer was greatly improved. He took fewer bad sacks, did not throw an abundance of picks, especially when considering most of them were thrown in the Wisconsin game. His receivers last year gave him NO help whatsoever, as they dropped many easy ones, and rarely caught a difficult ball. I am no Martinez apologist (if there is someone on the roster that can unseat him, I would be ecstatic), but he wasn't as bad as many make him out to be, and was definitely better than he was as a freshman as far as consistency. With all this offseason work, I am sure he will be even better as a junior, which is all you can ask from a player.

Honestly one thing I'd like to hear Martinez working on is his elusiveness when he runs. Martinez is so fast and if he had half of Eric Crouch’s elusiveness he would fun to watch. As it is now he has to get that straight line to the end zone to have much chance of busting it. If he could learn to shake a few cornerbacks out of their shoes that would also make me very happy. Maybe this goes back to his ankle injury and so it may be better this year.

All we can do as fans is wait and see what it's like. At this juncture, I’m just happy to see the matter get addressed.