Curtis Martin is expected to make official his long-awaited retirement from the Jets this week. When he does, the team will say goodbye to the greatest Jet since Joe Namath.

In his 11-year career as an NFL running back, Martin wasn’t often described in such grandiose terms because he didn’t call attention to himself. He didn’t guarantee victories like Broadway Joe or dance on the field like Mark Gastineau. He scored 100 touchdowns, but he didn’t high-step when he broke into the open field or prance around in the end zone, and that meant he didn’t get as many “SportsCenter” highlights as did most players of his caliber.

Martin had a businesslike approach to the game. When the Jets needed him to gain a yard on third-and-one, he got it. When they needed him to block a blitzing linebacker, he did it. Martin was so good, so consistently, that he ran for more than 1,000 yards in each of his first 10 NFL seasons, a feat no player has topped. His career total of 14,101 yards ranks fourth in league history.

How reliable was Martin? He ran the ball 3,518 times and caught 484 passes, but he fumbled just 29 times. That rate of touching the ball 138 times for every fumble is the best in NFL history. (At the other end of the spectrum is the other New York running back who retired this off-season, Tiki Barber, who fumbled more than twice as often as Martin.)

Martin was incredibly devoted to physical fitness, and that devotion allowed him to keep playing, and playing very well, beyond the age of 30, when most running backs break down. In 2004, at age 31, Martin ran 371 times for 1,697 yards. That kind of production from a running back that old is extraordinary, but all those carries took their toll. In 2005 Martin’s ailing knee caused him constant pain as he hobbled through the worst year of his career, and although he was on the Jets’ roster, he never got on the field in 2006.

But of all the examples of Martin’s greatness, the most telling came off the field, during the spring of 1998, when then-Jets coach Bill Parcells gave up first- and third-round draft picks for the opportunity to sign Martin away from the New England Patriots. Parcells was the Patriots’ coach when they drafted him in 1995, and he is one of the best coaches in NFL history at evaluating the qualities that make a player a winner. Parcells made the acquisition of Martin, who at the time was just 24 years old, the signature move of the Tuna’s tenure with the Jets. That is the ultimate compliment to Martin, from a coach who wasn’t big on handing out compliments.

In assessing his career, some league observers will point to what Martin didn’t do. Like every great player who retires without a Super Bowl ring, Martin will face the inevitable question about whether he considers that a hole on his résumé. There will also be those who point out that Martin was rarely used as a receiver, and that his career average of 4.0 yards a carry isn’t great.

None of those criticisms hold much water, though. No sport is more team-oriented than football, and Martin can hardly be blamed for being on a lot of good teams but no great ones. (Martin played in Super Bowl XXXI after his second season with the Patriots, but they lost to the Green Bay Packers.) As for his relatively paltry career receiving totals and yards per carry, that says more about the way his coaches chose to use him than it does about his own skills. He was often asked to stay in to block, rather than run routes, on passing plays, and he frequently ran the ball in shortyardage situations, when a gain of a yard or two was a successful play.

Namath and Don Maynard are the only players in the Pro Football Hall of Fame who played the majority of their careers with the Jets, and Martin should join them, although his path to the Hall of Fame isn’t without obstacles.

Because Martin’s last game was in 2005, he’ll be eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2011, alongside what could be the greatest assemblage of running backs in Hall of Fame history. Three other running backs who played their last games in 2005 can also stake a claim for their spots in Canton, Ohio: Jerome Bettis of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Marshall Faulk of the St. Louis Rams, and Priest Holmes of the Kansas City Chiefs. Considering that two other Hall of Fame-caliber players, Chiefs tackle Willie Roaf and Baltimore Ravens defensive back Deion Sanders, also finished their careers in 2005, the ballot will be crowded, and there’s a chance that Martin won’t make it in his first year of eligibility.

But Martin’s Hall of Fame credentials are clear, and there’s no doubt how he should be honored next. The Jets have retired the numbers of three players: Namath, Maynard, and Joe Klecko. With everything Martin accomplished in a Jets uniform, his no. 28 jersey should be the fourth.

Mr. Smith is a contributing editor for FootballOutsiders.com.