There aren’t many draft success stories from Ron Rivera’s four years in charge of the Washington Commanders. Sam Cosmi is one, John Bates is another. You can probably go ahead and add safety Quan Martin to that list.

Martin, a second-round pick in the 2023 NFL draft, enters his third NFL season in 2025. As a rookie in 2023, Martin appeared in 16 games, making five starts. Last year, in head coach Dan Quinn’s first season, Martin started 16 games and finished with 87 tackles, three forced fumbles, three passes defensed, and one interception.

However, Martin almost didn’t start last season. Last offseason, new defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. had Martin running with the backups at one time. Whitt believed in Martin, but wanted to see more. Martin proved his worth as the season progressed despite playing with two shoulder injuries.

Whitt spoke with the media on Wednesday during OTAs and singled out Martin as one of the players who’ve had a tremendous offseason, despite recovering from injuries.

“Quan is what we really stand for here,” Whitt said. “He’s a guy, they were messing with me because this time last year I sat Quan down. I was like, ‘Put him with the twos.’ And the coach was like, ‘Well, you made a great decision with that one.’ The reason I wanted to put him with the twos is that he was making mistakes that we can’t afford to make, and then the next three practices were boom, boom, boom. He’s back in there with the ones, and then he caught the ball. I don’t know if y’all saw that one, but he caught the ball from his back. And he just now, he’s taking a leadership role of communicating at a very high level, which he wasn’t doing at the beginning. And I give a lot of that credit to [Defensive Pass Game Coordinator] Jason Simmons and [Defensive Backs Coach] Tommy Donatell. They’ve done a great job of developing him. This kid has the potential to be one of the better safeties in this league and that’s what I’m holding him to.”

Whitt singled out Martin. The defensive back impressed coaches not only with his play on the field last season but also with his knowledge of the defense and his toughness. Martin continued to play despite having issues with both shoulders.

Don’t be surprised if Martin takes a big leap in 2025.

This article originally appeared on Commanders Wire: Commanders’ DC believes Quan Martin can be one of NFL’s best safeties