After defending the overall performance and hard-running of Doug Martin for weeks, Bucs head coach Dirk Koetter made the surprising move of deactivating the fifth-year pro in favor of Jacquizz Rodgers.

Martin has followed up last year’s 1,402-yard, six-touchdown, All-Pro-worthy effort with a season to forget in 2016. He’s rushed for only 421 yards and three touchdowns on 144 carries, giving him a career-low 2.9-yard average per attempt. During the last three games leading up to Saturday in New Orleans, that average was a combined 2.7.

Running behind an offensive line that’s struggled to open lanes and stay healthy hasn’t helped Martin or any Bucs back thrive, but the coaching staff decided a shake-up was needed last weekend. When asked about the situation Monday, Koetter tried to explain the decision while also defending his two-time Pro Bowl runner.

“I’ll stand by the defense,” Koetter said. “He is running hard. We do need to give him more lanes. But again, I made the decision I felt ’Quizz would give us a better opportunity last week and ’Quizz did a good job when he was in there. People can say whatever they want about Doug if he was in there but we don’t know. He wasn’t in there. I’m not trying to confuse anybody. That’s not my intent. I’m trying to put the Bucs in the best position to win games.”

Tampa Bay had to get away from the run because it was playing from behind almost all day against the Saints. Rodgers managed to average 4.2 yards and pick up 63 and a touchdown on 15 carries.

The Bucs have one game left and their playoff hopes have all but vanished because of two straight deflating defeats. Even if they don’t get the help they need to sneak into the postseason, a win over Carolina would give Bucs their first winning season since going 10-6 in 2010.

Finding how who’s toting the rock out of the Tampa Bay backfield, however, will have to wait.

“Well, right now I’m not going to say anything about who’s going to play this week because I don’t want to do Carolina any favors,” Koetter said. “As we said last week, we made a decision for the Saints game based on what I thought was best for our team that week. We’ll do the same thing this week. We’ll make a decision, not just at running back, but also at every position. When you’re in the last week of the regular season and you have different guys banged up, there are other decisions made like that but this one was just a little bit higher profile.”

Adding plenty of concern to the state of the Tampa Bay backfield is the five-year, $35.75 million contact Martin signed this past offseason to stay with the Bucs. The $8 million he earned this year and the $7 million coming his way next year is guaranteed.

Koetter was asked if this late-season benching may have an effect on Martin’s future with the organization.

“I have no good answer for you on that,” Koetter said, “but that decision [to deactivate him against New Orleans] was made and I’ll stand by it. At some point this week, it’ll be apparent what our decision is going to be this week and I’ll stand by that the same way.”