Week 4 Officiating: Meet Clay Martin and Crew
Name: Clay Martin
Age: 51
Promoted To Referee: 2018
Last Game: 09/27/26 CIN @ PIT
The Cincinnati Bengals committed 6 penalties for 40 yards. They were flagged a total of 8 times.
The Pittsburgh Steelers committed 5 penalties for 37 yards. They were flagged a total of 6 times.
Together there were 11 penalties for 77 yards. There were 14 total flags in this game.
Last Lions Game: 01/04/26 – MIN 27 @ DET 24
The Minnesota Vikings committed 7 penalties for 56 yards. They were flagged a total of 7 times.
The Detroit Lions committed 10 penalties for 76 yards. They were flagged a total of 12 times.
Together there were 17 penalties for 132 yards. There were 19 total flags in this game.
Notable
Unlike last week when the Lions drew a crew that had lots of penalties, this Clay Martin crew is at the bottom of the penalty stats through three games in 2026. With both teams ranking 22nd or lower in terms of flags so far, this should be a welcome crew if things hold to form. Look for False Starts and Offensive Holding to be called when the flags do come out, as both teams have these in common as the top two penalties, which align with Martin's crew tendencies.
The last time the Lions saw martins crew was Week 9 home loss to the Vikings last year when they were penalty happy and threw 10 flags accepted on the Lions amongst 17 total accepted flags. There are some minor tweaks to this crew with a new Side Judge (Eugene Hall last year with Carl Cheffers) and a new replay Assistant (Desiree Abrams from Alex Moores crew0, so expect similar trends to last year holding true.
Four of the top 5 penalized players are OL/TE for Carolina, and the Lions lead with Ya-Sin and reed and Borom and Sewel.
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