The San Francisco 49ers have waived offensive tackle Jonathan Martin, the team announced on Thursday. Martin spent one season with the 49ers after being traded by the Miami Dolphins in March 2014. That came on the heels of Miami's bullying scandal, in which Richie Incognito and other members of the Dolphins organization were implicated in bullying Martin.
49ers waive offensive tackle Jonathan Martin
Martin played in 15 games for the 49ers and can be claimed by any team after being waived.
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Ted Wells, an investigator for the NFL, took a look into the case and released a report detailing Martin's harassment, which came at the hands of Incognito, Mike Pouncey and John Jerry. Incognito spent last season out of the league but was signed by the Bills, saying that he had learned his lesson from the scandal. San Francisco stepped in and traded for Martin, who wound up playing in 15 games with the 49ers last season.
That said, it seemed as though Martin's biggest fan was head coach Jim Harbaugh, who left the team to coach at Michigan this offseason. With Harbaugh gone, it's not particularly surprising to see Martin gone. He didn't play at an exceptionally high level, but he did play an important role as the team's primary backup tackle, filling in for an injured Anthony Davis with nine starts this past season.
Martin is now on waivers and can be claimed by any of the 31 teams if they’d like to take on his contract for 2015. His contract isn’t much higher than the veteran minimum, so a tackle-needy team could submit a waiver claim. Martin was a second-round pick for Miami in the 2012 NFL Draft and has appeared in 38 games in his three-year career.
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