\u201cIt\u2019s simpler than it\u2019s made out to be sometimes,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cYou go lift weights, run, throw, study, prepare. Omaha is as good a place as any for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martinez married a Nebraskan last summer. He and his wife, Marisa, settled in the Omaha area, and he made an effort this year to give back. Martinez recently spoke to the football players at Gretna East High about his experiences in dealing with injuries and other adversity. He stood on a stage in the high school theater and captured the attention of the kids.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were dialed in and focused,\u201d Gretna East coach Justin Haberman said. \u201cHe was electric. The best thing is, he related to the kids, because he went through struggles.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martinez refused to take payment. He fielded questions and dodged nothing, Haberman said, handling every answer with class. In 2021 and throughout his career at Nebraska, Martinez endured criticism from fans and media members who did not know the extent of his injuries. He played much of that final season with a broken jaw.<\/p>\n
He left the school after four years as a starter with a school-record 10,792 yards of total offense.<\/p>\n
At 26, Martinez remains gracious toward Nebraska.<\/p>\n
He and Payton have worked out several times at Gretna East this summer. They throw to Haberman\u2019s receivers, explaining the purpose of drills for the high school coaches and players to absorb. On Tuesday afternoon this week, they trained in the heat on the turf at Omaha Westside, Payton\u2019s alma mater.<\/p>\n
![\"Adrian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_1668-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Adrian Martinez, left, and Cole Payton are hoping to make the rosters of their NFC playoff-contending teams. (Mitch Sherman \/ The Athletic)<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not asking a high school kid to run a 10- to 12-yard out at the same pace as Mike Evans,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cBut I think they enjoy catching NFL balls. There are a lot of kids here who want to play at the next level. It\u2019s cool to integrate myself into that.\u201d<\/p>\n
His pairing with Payton just made sense, Martinez said. Payton won two FCS national championships at North Dakota State and led the Bison to a perfect regular season last year. He was a finalist for the Walter Payton Award.<\/p>\n
Payton recently returned from Orlando, Fla., and a series of throwing sessions with Jalen Hurts, who organized the trip for the Eagles\u2019 quarterbacks, wide receivers and tight ends. He leaves again next week for camp in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
He\u2019ll take Martinez\u2019s wisdom with him. Martinez shared his knowledge from a pro career he began as an undrafted free agent with the Detroit Lions in 2023. The Lions cut Martinez in August of that year. Birmingham of the UFL signed him. He was named MVP of the league championship in June 2024 and signed with the New York Jets in July 2024.<\/p>\n
Martinez stuck on the Jets\u2019 practice squad in 2024. San Francisco signed him early last season. He finally made his NFL debut in Week 9 against the New York Giants after Jones subbed himself out in the final seconds of a 34-24 win.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been doing it the hard way,\u201d Payton said. \u201cIt hasn\u2019t been easy. That\u2019s what he brings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Payton, 6 feet 3 and 230 pounds, looks to follow former NDSU quarterbacks Carson Wentz, Trey Lance, Easton Stick (another Omahan) and Cam Miller to an NFL career. The Eagles signed Payton to a four-year, $4.6 million rookie deal, but he must make the team to get paid.<\/p>\n
Hurts and Andy Dalton are the veteran quarterbacks in Philly, along with third-year pro Tanner McKee out of Stanford.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I\u2019ve learned is that I belong,\u201d Payton said. \u201cI was able to train with some big names, go to the Senior Bowl, go to the combine. That gave me a lot of confidence. I know I can do it better than a lot of those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Payton, 23, impressed Martinez.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing a quarterback in the NFL is a unique experience,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cAnything that I can impart on him, I definitely will. But I think he\u2019s got a pretty good grip on things. He\u2019s very accomplished. It\u2019s more about him pushing me.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Cole](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2259310921.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Cole Payton was the No. 5 quarterback in this year\u2019s draft class, per The Athletic\u2019s Dane Brugler. (Don Juan Moore \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Martinez enters camp this month in Santa Clara, Calif., competing for a spot on a roster, too. Second-year quarterback Kurtis Rourke is healthy after missing much of 2025 with a knee injury. He was a seventh-round draft pick last year out of Indiana. Purdy and Jones return, too.<\/p>\n
The Niners figure to keep Rourke or Martinez behind the top two.<\/p>\n
A home base in Omaha \u2014 and the relationships Martinez has established \u2014 have helped keep him grounded amid the NFL pressure.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s cliche, but get comfortable being uncomfortable,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve had plenty of quarterback battles and competitions throughout my career. There\u2019s the understanding that every year, you\u2019re going to fight. If you want to be in this thing, you have to work. You have to be willing to compete and be willing to fail and learn and understand it\u2019s a process. It\u2019s not about surviving the first day of training camp. It\u2019s the collective effort that will get you over the hump.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OMAHA, Neb. \u2014 Five years ago this fall, Adrian Martinez played his final game in a Nebraska football…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":769826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,12695,1239,560,99],"class_list":["post-769825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-nebraska-cornhuskers","tag-philadelphia-eagles","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=769825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/769826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}