The entire drama surrounding running back Doug Martin and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers took a completely new turn on Wednesday. Just a day after it was announced that Martin would be a healthy inactive for the second consecutive game, comes this somewhat alarming report from NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport.
DEVELOPING: Bucs RB Doug Martin is "stepping away from the team to take care of personal issues." (via @RapSheet) pic.twitter.com/SyS9tKW8gb
— NFL Network (@nflnetwork) December 28, 2016
There’s been a lot of questions surrounding Martin’s status in Tampa Bay. Why has he fallen out of favor so soon after inking a huge long-term deal? Has something happened behind the scenes?
At the very least, we have somewhat of an answer to the drama hanging over the Buccaneers as they make a last-ditch attempt to sneak into the playoffs. The circumstances surrounding Martin’s situation are not yet known. And personal issues can mean a lot of different things.
We’ll definitely have updates as they come in. But for now, let’s hope the issues Martin is dealing with are not on the serious side.