As loyal PewterReport.com readers know, my coverage of the Bucs draft actually begins in September during college football season as I sprinkle some notes in SR’s Fab 5 columns during the fall and winter about potential Bucs draft targets. I’ve been hitting the draft hard in some recent editions of SR’s Fab 5, such as last week’s column, so I’ve decided to switch gears this week and focus more on some of Tampa Bay’s veterans with the team’s offseason workouts beginning on Monday, April 17.

I was able to get some dynamite, exclusive interviews this week with linebacker Kwon Alexander, right tackle Demar Dotson and left guard Kevin Pamphile, in addition to the chance to speak with legendary Bucs defensive tackle Warren Sapp and defensive end Simeon Rice. I hope this edition of SR’s Fab 5 is as fun for you to read as it was for me to write.

Here we go.

SR’s Fab 5 is a collection of inside scoop, analysis and insight from yours truly, PewterReport.com publisher and Bucs beat writer Scott Reynolds. Here are a few things that caught my attention this week at One Buc Place and around the NFL.

FAB 1. MARTIN SET TO RETURN TO ONE BUC PLACE
To be a Buccaneer – or not to be a Buccaneer?

That is the question.

Football Shakespeare aside, that is indeed the question surrounding former Pro Bowl running back Doug Martin.

Martin is expected to show up on Monday, April 17, when the team reports for the beginning of offseason conditioning drills. He still has a three-game suspension looming as a result of testing positive for PEDs (performance enhancing drugs), but that only affects the regular season.

Bucs RB Doug Martin – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“Doug is family,” Bucs right tackle Demar Dotson said. “I don’t know any other way than to greet him. Doug is family. We’ll greet Doug the same way we’ve always greeted Doug. You say, ‘Hey, what’s up, Doug?’ You laugh. You kick it with him. That’s family. I wouldn’t expect it to be any other way.”

Another blocker for Martin, left guard Kevin Pamphile, is also happy to see him re-join the team for offseason workouts.

“I’m excited,” Pamphile said. “I missed him. Hopefully he’ll be welcomed back with open arms. We’re going to be back together as a family and get after it. I know he’s excited to get back. I can’t wait.”

Martin is allowed to lift weights and go through the first phase of the offseason program, which is conditioning. He’s also allowed to go to team meetings and on-field work in the OTAs and mandatory mini-camp. If he’s still on the team after the draft, Martin can even go to training camp and play in the Bucs’ preseason games in August.

If Martin somehow makes the 53-man roster – and him being cut by the Bucs is not a foregone conclusion at this point – he would be banished from One Buccaneer Place for the first three weeks of the regular season and allowed to return in October for the fourth game of the year.

So until he’s not a Buccaneer, Martin is a Buccaneer.

The question for Tampa Bay head coach Dirk Koetter is indeed where to put Martin on the depth chart, and how much time – and carries – does he invest in a player who won’t be available until Week 4? That question doesn’t have to be answered until the team takes the field in May for OTAs, but it’s already on Koetter’s mind.

Bucs RB Doug Martin – Photo by: Getty Images

Is Martin going to be punished for making poor choices that caused him to be checked into a drug rehabilitation center during the offseason and for letting the team down last year with a sub-par performance and this year with the three-game suspension to start the season?

Will Martin begin the offseason deep down the depth chart because he won’t be able to help the team out early in the season, in addition to the possibility that Tampa Bay may ultimately cut him or try to trade him at some point between now and October?

Or has Martin convinced Koetter and general manager Jason Licht that his troubles are behind him, and does the fact that he is the most talented running back on the current roster automatically seat him atop the depth chart?

There are several plusses Martin has working in his favor and time is on his side. Koetter and Licht don’t have to do anything right now, as he won’t be paid a penny until his game check after the fourth week of the regular season. And he’s already making less money this year.

Martin was expected to earn $7 million in base salary in 2017, but will only earn $5.6875 million instead as his three-game suspension will cost him $1.3125 million. If he ends up remaining in Tampa Bay this year the team could force him to take a pay cut, or restructure his deal with a pay cut, but with incentives to earn some of his money back, as guard J.R. Sweezy recently had to do.

Martin does count against the team’s 90-man offseason roster, but he won’t count against the Bucs’ 53-man roster when the season starts because he will be on the suspended list.

Bucs RB Doug Martin – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

There are other positives with Martin that Koetter might lean on, such as the fact that he played a Boise State, and Koetter, an Idaho native, once coached at the school and has some sentimental ties to the program. But more importantly, Martin shined in Koetter’s first year as Tampa Bay’s offensive coordinator, running for 1,402 yards and making the Pro Bowl as the NFL’s second-leading rusher.

That helped the Bucs produce the league’s fifth-best offense in 2015 and top the 6,000 total yards mark for the first time in franchise history. That production on offense, combined with Tampa Bay’s underwhelming win-loss record and Lovie Smith’s dismal showing as defensive coordinator in 2015 led to Smith’s firing after two years and Koetter replacing him.

Martin’s success in 2015 played a large role in Koetter becoming an NFL head coach for the first time. That can’t be overlooked.

No one has had more success running the ball in Tampa Bay during the past two years than Martin. That’s a fact that Koetter isn’t going to sweep under the rug.

To his credit, when backed into the corner of a contract year without getting a fifth-year option Martin shined. He came to training camp in 2015 sleeker and a tick faster. After two injury-plagued seasons in which he ran for less than 500 yards, and with his tenure in Tampa Bay on the line, every run had purpose and determination written all over it that year – even in training camp and the preseason.

Bucs RB Doug Martin – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

After receiving a five-year, $35.75 million extension in 2016, Martin didn’t look the same in training camp last year. He wasn’t heavy, but he wasn’t as slender as he was in the summer of 2015. Martin wasn’t slow, but he didn’t have the same burst in camp that he did in his Pro Bowl season the year prior.

Thus, it wasn’t terribly surprising that he had a bad year due to injuries and ineffectiveness. During Martin’s third year out of the last four with less than 500 yards rushing, he felt the pressure of his contract and made some bad choices regarding how he was coping with it.

Koetter and Licht have met with Martin this offseason and been encouraged by how things are going for him personally. He recently shared a Twitter post and a recent picture of him at Boise State reflecting on his recent past.

“Never forget your past, it’s the foundation that built your existence and the secret to your future.” pic.twitter.com/vEFav8ecz5

— Doug Martin (@DougMartin22) April 7, 2017

Is Martin a changed man? Is he motivated to show he wants to earn his big money contract? Will he show up at One Buccaneer Place looking like the 2015 running back? Does he want to show that he still belongs as the team’s starting running back and that he’s worth waiting until October for?

And perhaps more importantly, if the team is patient with Martin and he checks some of those boxes, how will he handle his three-week hiatus in September as he sits out his suspension? Can he be trusted to stay clean? Can he be counted on to stay focused?

Can Martin stay healthy in camp and in the preseason? How will a preseason injury affect the team’s attitude towards him?

How will having Hard Knocks in training camp affect Martin? You know he’s going to be one of the storylines.

What happens if the Bucs elect to draft a starting-caliber running back in the first three rounds? There are only four spots on the roster for running backs, and Jacquizz Rodgers and the rookie will occupy two of them and not likely factor in on special teams covering kicks the way a third- and fourth-string running back needs to.

Would Martin be asked to play special teams? Would he even want to?

Bucs head coach Dirk Koetter – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Could the Bucs trade him before or after his suspension has been served? Or would the team be better off keeping Martin as an insurance policy because he knows the offense so well? Or does Koetter envision Martin as a co-starter with Rodgers or a rookie when he returns in October with Sims sliding down the depth chart to the fourth position?

If he stays, would he agree to a pay cut if the team asked, or would he demand to be released and re-start his NFL career elsewhere?

There are a lot of questions that Koetter and Licht have to sift through for answers when it comes to Martin, and as they’ve maintained since speaking with me, and the PewterReport.com staff at the Senior Bowl in January, time is on their side. There’s no harm in keeping Martin on the offseason roster – certainly through the NFL Draft later this month to see what running back Tampa Bay ends up drafting.

And Koetter and Licht will be interested to see what type of shape Martin is mentally and physically when he returns to One Buccaneer Place on Monday. How he shows up on Monday could start answering some of the Bucs’ questions about him.

“It’s going to be good having Doug back,” said Tampa Bay middle linebacker Kwon Alexander said. “I can’t wait to have Doug back. He’s a great player and a great person. Sometimes people have to go through things they have to fix, and he did that. I feel like he can learn from that. I had my issue before. It’s a thing that you just have to move on from, move forward and push past it. Get back with the team and get right. It’s time to go to work.”