Thomas moved past Martinez on the depth chart after the latter was injured at Washington. It was surprising to see him only play one snap on defense though.
It takes considerable time to internalize the various roles of the ILB position to Capers' specifications. In short, Martinez has been too confused too often to handle a variety calls and match ups and to react appropriately in the split seconds post snap.
That's not to say he won't be a good ILB eventually. Nor is it to say he won't see meaningful snaps against Atlanta if the game plan calls for a tightly defined role, though I kind of doubt that given Atlanta (like Dallas) presents considerable threats in both the run and pass games.
Martinez is probably going through the adjustment process Ryan went through last season, where Ryan played a couple of games to open the season, sat for a bunch of games, then came back around week 10 as Ryan 2.0 after weeks of mental adjustments in practice.
It cannot be repeated enough...this position is very hard to master from a mental standpoint in a Capers defense. It also cannot be emphasized enough that no matter what a guy does in camp, practice and preseason, you really don't know what you have until you face opponents in money games.
