Martinas Orlando Rankin (born October 20, 1994) is

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

offensive tackle who is a free agent. He played college football at

Mississippi State Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university adjacent to Starkville, Mississippi. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univer ...

and was drafted by the Houston Texans in the third round of the 2018 NFL Draft. He has also been a member of the

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The ...

Early life

After playing at Mendenhall High School in Mississippi, Rankin spent two years at

Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College (MGCCC) is a public community college with its main campus in Perkinston, Mississippi. It was founded as Harrison County Agricultural High School in 1912. MGCCC has three campuses and six centers: The ma ...

Perkinston, Mississippi Perkinston is an unincorporated community in central Stone County, Mississippi, United States. It is situated along U.S. Highway 49, approximately five miles south of Wiggins. The community is part of the Gulfport–Biloxi, Mississippi Met ...

. He was rated as the ninth best junior college recruit by 247 Sports and committed to play at

over offers from Oklahoma,

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

, Ole Miss,

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

, and others.

College career

Rankin

redshirted Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

in 2015 and earned a starting job as a junior in

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

. He had a breakout year in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

, winning the

Kent Hull Trophy The C Spire Conerly Trophy is an award given annually to the best college football player in the state of Mississippi by the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. Voting Sixty media representatives from across Mississippi determine the Trophy recipie ...

and being named to the 2017 All-SEC football team.

Professional career

NFL Draft

Before his senior season, Rankin was projected as a first round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft by several writers. Rankin's draft stock began to slide after he sustained an ankle injury during the season and also had mediocre performances against

LSU Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

and Auburn. On November 16, 2017, it was announced that Rankin had accepted his invitation to play in the

2018 Senior Bowl The 2018 Senior Bowl was an all-star college football exhibition game featuring players from the 2017 NCAA Division I FBS football season, and prospects for the 2018 draft of the professional National Football League (NFL). The game was the last ...

. On January 20, 2018, it was reported that Rankin would be unable to play in the

Senior Bowl The Senior Bowl is a post-season college football all-star game played annually in late January or early February in Mobile, Alabama, which showcases the best NFL Draft prospects of those players who have completed their college eligibility. Pr ...

due to an ankle injury he sustained in the TaxSlayer Bowl. Rankin attended the

NFL Scouting Combine The NFL Scouting Combine is a week-long showcase occurring every February at Lucas Oil Stadium (and formerly at the RCA Dome until 2008) in Indianapolis, where college football players perform physical and mental tests in front of National Foo ...

in Indianapolis, but did not perform any drills due to the foot injury he sustained. On March 28, 2018, he attended Mississippi State's pro day, but chose to only perform the broad jump and vertical jump. Rankin also attended a private meetings with representatives from the Cincinnati Bengals and

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquar ...

. At the conclusion of the pre-draft process, Rankin was projected to be a second or third round pick by NFL draft experts and scouts. He was ranked as the fourth best offensive tackle by Scouts Inc. and was ranked the seventh best offensive tackle in the draft by DraftScout.com and

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twi ...

Houston Texans

The Houston Texas selected Rankins in the third round with the 80th overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. Rankins was the eighth offensive tackle drafted in 2018. The pick used to draft Rankin was acquired in a trade that sent

Duane Brown Duane Anthony Brown (born August 30, 1985) is an American football offensive tackle for the New York Jets of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Virginia Tech and was drafted by the Houston Texans in the first r ...

to the Seattle Seahawks. On May 10, 2018, the Houston Texans signed Rankin to a four-year, $3.54 million contract that includes a signing bonus of $901,268. The Texans stated they drafted Rankin to play offensive tackle although many scouts and draft experts viewed him as an interior offensive lineman in the NFL. During rookie minicamp, Rankin sustained a foot injury which required surgery and was sidelined for the entire training camp.

Kansas City Chiefs

On August 31, 2019, Rankin was traded to the

in exchange for running back Carlos Hyde. He started five games at left guard before suffering a knee injury in Week 10. He was placed on injured reserve on November 11, 2019. During his absence, the Chiefs went on to win

Super Bowl LIV Super Bowl LIV was an American football game played to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2019 season. The American Football Conference (AFC) champion Kansas City Chiefs defeated the National Football Conferenc ...

, their first championship in 50 years. He was placed on the active/

physically unable to perform list Physically unable to perform (PUP) is a roster designation used in the National Football League (NFL) for players who suffered injuries during football-related activities prior to the start of training camp. Players on the PUP list may participate ...

(PUP) at the start of training camp on July 31, 2020. He was moved to the reserve/PUP list at the start of the regular season on September 5, 2020. He was activated on November 10. He was placed on the reserve/

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

list by the Chiefs on November 16, 2020, and activated on November 23. He was waived on June 17, 2021.

References

External links

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Kansas City Chiefs bioMississippi State Bulldogs bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rankin, Martinas 1994 births Living people People from Mendenhall, Mississippi Players of American football from Mississippi American football offensive tackles Mississippi State Bulldogs football players Houston Texans players Kansas City Chiefs players