{"id":95510,"date":"2025-06-01T11:13:24","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T11:13:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/95510\/"},"modified":"2025-06-01T11:13:24","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T11:13:24","slug":"how-49ers-rookie-martin-already-has-impressed-his-idol-warner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/95510\/","title":{"rendered":"How 49ers rookie Martin already has impressed his idol Warner"},"content":{"rendered":"

How 49ers rookie Martin already has impressed his idol Warner<\/a> originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area<\/a><\/p>\n

They say to never meet your idol.<\/p>\n

But that hasn\u2019t been the case for 49ers rookie Nick Martin<\/a> and All-Pro linebacker Fred Warner.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Martin, San Francisco\u2019s No. 75 overall pick<\/a> in the 2025 NFL Draft, revealed that the only jersey he ever has purchased is Warner\u2019s.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI never bought a player\u2019s jersey other than Fred Warner\u2019s,\u201d Martin said back in October on \u201cThe Draft Club\u201d podcast. \u201cI\u2019ll wear his jersey and be proud of it. He\u2019s a dog, for real.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, seven months later, in the early stages of the 49ers\u2019 offseason program, Warner revealed that Martin doesn\u2019t try to act too cool around one of his biggest inspirations and constantly picks his brain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve loved everything that Nick\u2019s been about since he\u2019s arrived,\u201d Warner told reporters after practice Thursday in Santa Clara. \u201cI heard the whole story about how he said he had my jersey before coming on the team, and with some of those situations, the whole too cool thing, I don\u2019t know what it is, you just don\u2019t want an older player to think they\u2019re just like little bro or something.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBut he\u2019s come in and he\u2019s asked me every single question known to man. \u2018Fred, how are you doing this? What are you doing after practice? What are you doing after the lift?\u2019 And wanting to be a part of those things and not being afraid to ask those questions. I\u2019ve seen the athletic ability flash already on the field and the way that he closes space really quickly, and he already has the great mindset of wanting to learn.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I\u2019m really happy with where he\u2019s at.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the 49ers lost Dre Greenlaw in free agency, they knew they had a void to fill, and they hope to have found it in Martin.<\/p>\n

Martin (5-foot-11 1\/2, 221 pounds) had a huge junior season at Oklahoma State, as he registered 140 tackles, six sacks and 16 tackles for loss. His senior season was cut short, as he missed the final seven games of the season due to a knee injury.<\/p>\n

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But he\u2019s feeling good in his new home in the Bay, alongside one of his favorite players ever.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo linebackers that I have a lot of respect for [are] Ray Lewis and Fred Warner,\u201d Martin said. \u201cThey\u2019re dogs. They have a knack for the ball and play recognition. \u201cAnd Fred, he [is] balling right now. And I grew up watching Ray Lewis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Download and follow the 49ers Talk Podcast<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How 49ers rookie Martin already has impressed his idol Warner originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area They…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2080],"tags":[220,1160,7,592,6,906,1161,252,2624,2623,6130],"class_list":{"0":"post-95510","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-49ers","8":"tag-49ers","9":"tag-dre-greenlaw","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-fred-warner","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-nick-martin","14":"tag-san-francisco","15":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","16":"tag-sanfrancisco","17":"tag-sanfrancisco49ers","18":"tag-the-49ers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114607817193283670","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}