GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Finally, the Green Bay Packers picked an inside linebacker. And for the second straight year, they used a fourth-round pick to do it.

Now, they’ll see if Stanford’s Blake Martinez is good enough to make a difference at a position that has worried their passionate fans for years.

My take: The first of two compensatory fourth-round selections, the 6-foot-2, 237-pound Martinez -- the Pac-12’s leading tackler last season with 141 stops -- adds competition to a position that was the thinnest on the roster entering Saturday with Clay Matthews' move back outside. Martinez will battle 2015 fourth-round pick Jake Ryan, who started seven games last season (including playoffs), and 2013 seventh-round pick Sam Barrington, who is coming off a foot injury that required surgery and ended his season after just one game.

Packers director of football operations Eliot Wolf said Martinez could play all three downs and showed the ability to cover tight ends and backs out of the backfield while at Stanford, meaning he could see his initial action as the team’s dime linebacker in passing situations. Last year, the Packers were forced to play Joe Thomas, whom they’d cut at the end of training camp and was re-signed off Dallas’ practice squad, in that role.

"I kind of like everything about him. He can cover, he can blitz, he can sift over the top and make tackles. He's a pretty versatile guy," Wolf said. "I don't see covering as an issue for him."