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The Lions spent a fifth-round pick on Sam Martin 2013. A year later, he is the NFL's second-best punter. (Mike Mulholland | MLive.com)

ALLEN PARK -- Sam Martin is one of just two players in the NFL to average more than 50 yards per punt this season. He's booming 77.8 percent of his kickoffs for touchbacks.

He is, frankly, one the league's best specialists in only his second year with the Detroit Lions.

Yet, Martin's Twitter photo doesn't show him launching one of his trademark moonshot punts. It doesn't show him launching anything, actually.

In fact, he's the one being launched -- by two very large Pittsburgh Steelers during a botched fake field-goal attempt last season.

"How often am I going to get frickin' backflipped in my career?" Martin said with a shrug. "I was sore pretty much the whole week. Had a pretty nice bruise on my left (butt) cheek. Or right (butt) cheek? I can't remember now.

"But I got pile-drived by two giant humans."

Martin fumbled on the play, though that hardly mattered. The fake was doomed from the start, and then-coach Jim Schwartz took a lot of heat for dialing it up while nursing a slim lead on the road (and in the rain).

But a year later, Martin is able to laugh off the play.

"I'll tell you this: If I would have gotten the first down and then fumbled, I probably wouldn't have the picture up," he said. "But the fact it was a dead play already, I can joke about it."

Of course, it's easy to use a bit of self-deprecation when you're also as good as Martin has been for the Lions this year.

He finished sixth in overall punting last year, at 47.2 yards per attempt, and is checking in at a cool 50.1 yards through the first quarter of the 2014 season. That's second in the league, trailing only Washington's Tress Way (53.0 yards). And Martin has him in his sights.

"I would like to stay above 50," Martin said, "and (being No. 1 is) the ultimate goal."

"I feel really good," he added. "I wasn't too happy with my Carolina game, but we held them in check. Had a great week of practice last week, felt really good coming into this game, and I think I'm in a good rhythm right now."

The Lions are off to a 3-1 start and currently reign atop the NFC North. Calvin Johnson, Matthew Stafford, Golden Tate, DeAndre Levy and Darius Slay have been some of the biggest stars of the season's first quarter, but coach Jim Caldwell has also pointed to Martin's contributions as a critical component of the hot start.

Martin is the league's second-best punter, plus is allowing a return on only 22.2 percent of his kickoffs. That means opposing offenses are consistently facing a long field.

Pair that with a No. 1 defense, and it's a lethal combo.

"It ensures that a team is going to have to march the ball quite a distance in order to put it in the end zone," Caldwell said recently. "Your percentages are down when you have to do that consistently, and he's certainly given us an opportunity to get our defense in position to keep people out of the end zone.

"They've kicked a few field goals on us, but overall, what he's done for us has been good."

Martin said he's gotten some extra oomph on his kickoffs thanks to a couple pointers from Lions kicking legend Jason Hanson.

"I was opening up my shoulders a little bit before I got to the ball, which caused me to hit really high balls," Martin said. "They were still good kicks, but they weren't 5 or 10 yards out the back. Easy fix -- keep your shoulder in longer until contact.

"Ever since then, I've been driving them. Not getting the hang time I used to get, but I'm consistently hitting a longer ball."

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