I was thinking the same thing. I thought it was going to be Gebbia so my head exploded this morning thinking about how dynamic the offense could be with Martinez. I think everyone thought Martinez has "it" and would eventually become starter. If the staff feels he is as good as Gebbia's passing and decision making then wow we could really have a Milton like offense by mid--season. Martinez size also makes me less concerned about injury.
I've thought, really since Martinez got here, if he was 90% as good as Gebbia at throwing and decision-making, he might still have the advantage due to running ability and size. Because I assumed he was a much better runner than Gebbia. I would take 60% completion vs 65% completion if the former is a legit running threat and the latter is serviceable.
Just reading the OP - I'd rather have a Taylor Martinez type (with less fumbles) coached by Frost and Verduzco and with Frost as the playcaller. I believe in Frost's ability to develop a QB like Taylor Martinez that can do both things really well. I think Taylor Martinez with Frost as his coach would have been a better player. Maybe a much better player. Or maybe he wouldn't have been capable of running Frost's offense. That's possible too. I believe the offense he was running was Beck's attempt at Oregon's offense.
Oregon's and Frost's offenses have worked even when they haven't had dynamic runners at QB, but they are taken to the next level when they have a dynamic running QB like Mariota. If you look at the QB's Frost has recruited to NU, they are all very dynamic runners. Milton was an effective enough runner to make the offense work at UCF, but Frost can recruit a bigger and better QB to NU, than he can to UCF. Sam McKewon has made some very good points about not needing a QB who can make big plays with his legs against most of NU's schedule, but where a guy like Martinez is most effective is against a defense like Michigan or Wisconsin. A QB who can make a play for himself in the run game is huge against great defenses.
I still worry about injury with AM due to the shoulder issues. He may be big, but still has injury history.
Is having one shoulder injury nearly 2 years ago "issues"? From what I remember it was a freak injury while he was playing basketball as a junior in high school, and it required surgery.
I don't know much about the injury, but he was out his whole Senior year and even during the spring was not quite 100% yet. Also with many injuries you're more likely to be susceptible to the same injury. Not sure if that is the case with this injury or not.
Having a shifty runner like Martinez requires the defense to account for him on every play which should open things up downfield.
His injury was a torn labrum, so they had to rebuild the shoulder. Yes, that required significant rehab and training to get Martinez back to full health, but I think it's a much different issue than chronic shoulder pain or soreness.
I would agree with all of this and the recruits we have been going after are certainly good runners.
Taylor Martinez's motion didn't change much, but I think he did improve his footwork, which leads to better accuracy.