Stay Tranquilo - The Truth About Being a Journeyman in the NFL | Washington Commanders DE Jacob Martin

Episode Date: March 6, 2026

Jacob Martin shares stories from his NFL career, explains what it’s like being traded as a player, and talks about his mindset as a journeyman in the league. He also discusses aggressive defensive schemes, playing for multiple teams, and his passion for helping dogs and animal shelters through his work with DogTV. Chapters 0:00 Intro 1:10 Jacob Martin joins the show 2:45 Getting traded in the NFL 6:20 Journeyman mindset 9:40 Washington Commanders defense 13:30 Aggressive defensive schemes 16:45 Life off the field 19:20 DogTV and helping shelters 23:00 Outro   #NFL #WashingtonCommanders #JacobMartin #NFLTrades Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

All right, all right. All right. That's my go-to intro. I, every single time I'm going, all right, all right. And these guys, they love it. It's awesome. It works, man.

Everyone's locked in now. Let's go. Yeah. You want me to go full intro? Yeah, yeah. Can't get out. Full intro. We've got a full, full cast here, all right?

We are joined special episode. Jacob Martin. How you doing, my man? I'm doing well, man. Thank you guys for having me, bro. Absolutely. I appreciate you guys having me all, man. Appreciate you guys for coming on.

Yeah. So, uh, why. I want to definitely talk about you. I know we got a living in an amount of time, but tell us about you, your career, kind of where, what's, what's going on in your life nowadays? Shoot, man, I am a, what they call a true journeyman, dog, you know. I have been traded twice in my career. You know, most guys go through a career and have never been traded. You know, oftentimes there's a stigma about being traded as if, like, you know, you may be like a problem child or something like that. No, I'm a good person, bro. So, I don't think you're going to have a question. So, so, you know, I've been trade twice, and it's been a hell of a ride. Kind of just rolled the punches, man.

And it's allowed me to really hone in on who I am as a football player, who I am as a competitor, as an athlete. In terms of preparation, man, has allowed me to hone in all the things that you really need to focus on, you know, so I can really plug and play for anybody. You know what I mean? And that's just my mindset. And, you know, I'm just keep the ball rolling, dog.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that's a testament to the NFL as a whole, right? A lot of these journeymen like yourself. But it's that adversity, I think, that keeps you going every single year, right? Yeah. Yeah, man. Like, I would much rather better myself, you know, going into any situation. Yeah.

than relying on, you know, someone getting hurt or a GM, you know, making the right call or a coach making the right call. You know, I'm a bet on myself, you know, 100% of the time, dog. Absolutely. Go ahead, my bad. So, like, that's how I'm a rock. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, like you were saying, though, a lot of people see being traded or release is a bad thing.

But like, like, being traded, it's a demand still. Long as somebody wants you, long as one person wants you every year, now you're a 10-year event. You know what I mean? So it's really not the end of the world. I want to talk a little bit about the new DC too. You've got 26 and a half sacks in your career. Comes from Minnesota, a very aggressive scheme under Flores. That's got to be exciting, right?

Yeah, that's, I have loved the things they've done over there in Minnesota, you know, in terms of their aggressive play from the top down, from their secondary to the, from the linebackers to, you know, that D-line. You don't know who's blitzing. You don't know who's dropping. Yeah. And I love that, man. I love that.

So, like, that is, in my opinion, that is the best defense for a guy. guy like me, you know, I'm very versatile in terms of the things I can do. You know, and obviously I can line up, put my hand on the ground and play you, you know, base football, but I would like to, my skill set is being fast and have great hands, great get-off. So be able to move up and down the line of skirmage or drop into coverage here and there, you know, here and there, dog, here and there. But like, you're already here and there. I didn't say that.

But, you know, like, I'm excited to see the things they can come up with and just like DQ's ability to hone in on on what people do great and bring that out of people. I'm excited to see what he can bring out of him as well. Oh yeah. Oh, yeah. I know we're living on time, so I know I want to touch on it, right?

Talk to us about your work, you know, in like the veterinarian space. You got your dog on set. So that's whiskey. She's one of, one of my coworkers actually over that dog TV. And this is her handler.

Oh. And she is awesome. Come on, whiskey. Whoa, come over here. Whiskey. You're going to steal the show. Here, me, whiskey. Come here.

Come here. Here we go. Come here. Hey. That's a good job. That's a good job. Oh, yeah. That's awesome.

The things the dog would do for a treat. Oh, yeah. She is a fiend for him. She does a good job. She's been dealing with me all day. She did a trooper for hanging around on media row. Honestly, you guys were talking football and like I was just watching the dog. I was just like I had my eyes on the dog the whole time.

I will talk a little bit about this. It's kind of crazy. We have another guess that's kind of similar. The team you were drafted by is in the Super Bowl. Yeah. How does that kind of make you feel? Dude, I'm not going to lie to you, man. Me and Seattle got some beef, bro.

We got some serious beef, man, because in, In 2019, the year I got traded from Seattle, there was a whole, like, offseason to speed about if they're going to bring back Frank Clark or not. He ended up going to Kansas City. Yeah. I had just got named the starter. Like, coming off of, like, a crazy preseason, you know, like,

playing really good football. We played, the last piece of the game was a Thursday night. I remember this, like, to the, like, to the, because it's like took my soul. Like no pause. But, uh, but like, yeah.

So I'm out in, I'm out in Pennsylvania and just like, you know, went back to Temple, that kind of thing, kick around Philly for a little bit before the season's really kicked off. I land in Philly. I'm on my way like to the hotel.

I get a phone call. I guess at this point, at this point it's like a Saturday. I get a phone call saying like, hey, Jake, we're trading you to the Texans. I'm just like, bro. Hey, what? To the Texans, dog.

And, like, you know, Texas were a good football team, so I really didn't, like, you know, didn't really care. But, like, you know, as a kid, you know, you dream to be like, okay, I'm gonna be on this. I'm gonna be a one team guy.

You know, I'm, I am going to be a Seahawk for life. And then they trade you, you know. And that's, this is all you know. This is your only NFL experience. You know, you're in the football world. You know, back then was like when Pete was the head coach. Right. You know, it was considered like,

world man like it was a great time in seattle dog like you were out of pads after week three you know like you know you had a beautiful drive up the lake every day to work you know you had great weather great food great people you know so you have all these you know great things going for you you and then uh to have it all ripped away and never but uh but uh um shoot man but it was it was a it was a it was a very, it was a very trying time, but I think like, we realized that like, damn, I'm Jacob Martin, a sixth round draft pick and I just got traded for the number one overall pick. That's a good way to put it.

Jadion Clowny. Yeah. That's what they traded for. Wow. You know, me and J.D. are close. You know, our path has kind of been intertwined over the years, you know, in terms of playing with each other or against each other, you know, or having similar friends kicking and stuff like that on the weekends.

Yeah. But, yeah, man. Like, that was a, you know, it was a dope experience. Yeah, like you said, too, you're headed back to Runk, or, uh, Temple. You're feeling good. You got the starting job. Yeah, you're like, I'm about to slot in some DMs. Tell me.

And they chose you. It's a crazy world. But at the end of the day, what's meant for you is for you, man, is for you. Truthful, you know. What happens for, everything happens for a reason. Yeah, man. Before you head out, we do got to talk about it. I, I don't talk to whiskey and the work that you do as a vet.

Exactly. Talk a little bit about the work you do. And, and. you know what dogs mean to you got i'm a big dog guy i've got a vishlow back home he's literally my best friend so i'm a big i'm a big dog guy have three dogs myself you know and i throughout my career about the the wonderful opportunity to to be an advocate for multiple shelters throughout the different areas i've lived whether i be paula chicago or the hira and dc um and dog tv is it's uh it's been great to partner with them and them help me bring light to

dogs in the shelter. You know, so it's been super rewarding to work with those guys and the great things that they do. And if you have dogs, you know, turn on dog TV, man. It's a great way to stimulate your dogs when you're not at the house, man.

Like I said, I have three dogs myself, man. And I know when I'm not at the house where I know I'm not going to be there for long periods of time, you know, I'll throw on dog TV. Hell yeah. That's like you get it through the Roku app, like a streaming type channel. Yeah. Okay. dope. I want to do that for sure.

And last one, I know you got to get out of here. What dogs do you have? Like, what breeds? Um, so I have, uh, my oldest is a gold retriever. His name is Bubba. Love that. Um, I have a black lab mix. His name is B. I got a black lab, yeah. And then I have a Bernie's mountain dog and her name is Mabel. Nice, nice. Awesome. Oh, yeah, brother. Well, appreciate you for coming on. We got to do this again. Longer time. I bet there's a lot more to talk about, but appreciate you for coming on. Yeah, the crowd's getting crazy. Whiskey's got a whole friend. Yeah, we got a whole performance. You're doing like some. We got to get you out of.

Well, Blasks, he's going to let's catch.