Dallas Cowboys, Zack Martin reach agreement to end contract holdout

The Dallas Cowboys and starting right guard Zack Martin have come to terms on an agreement that is ending the lineman’s contract holdout this week, according to Ian Rapoport and Mike Garafolo.

Martin did not join the team for training camp in Oxnard and missed the first preseason game versus the Jaguars on Saturday, but now he’s returning.

Dallas has agreed to raise the All-Pro’s salary over the next two seasons. He will get $18 million through the remainder of his contract, ultimately giving him a raise of $8 million. In March, Martin agreed to a contract restructure that turned $11.8 million of his 2023 salary into a signing bonus, which cleared $8.8 million in cap space for Dallas.

Martin last signed a deal in 2018 for six years and $84 million. Although he has arguably been the best guard in the league over the last few years, others had surpassed him in average annual salary since then.

The top-paid guard going into the 2023 season is Chris Lindstrom with the Falcons. He signed a five-year deal in March for $102.5 million. The Cowboys star was going to make roughly $6.5 million less per season than Lindstrom.

There was precedent for the team to renegotiate with the star guard despite two years left remaining on his deal. In 2002, they signed guard Larry Allen under similar circumstances to a new deal in order to make him one of the highest-paid OL.

Quarterback Dak Prescott, had a very simple answer to the contract dispute when asked last month: “Pay the man.“

The Cowboys selected Martin with the No. 16 overall pick in the first round coming out of Notre Dame for the 2014 NFL Draft. In his first season, he was the only rookie to make the first-team All-Pro list. He was also the first Cowboys rookie to make it since 1969.

Cowboys OL struggles versus Jacksonville

The Dallas Cowboys‘ loss versus the Jacksonville Jaguars revealed a possible area of concern for the offense on Saturday – the offensive line. Head coach Mike McCarthy wouldn’t go so far as to call it a concern after the unit gave up four sacks in their first preseason game, but he called it a “focus.”

“It’s a focus,” McCarthy said, via Todd Archer. “Because you always like to get to a point in camp where you have your five guys that try to keep connected and get into a rhythm and so forth. We’re obviously not at that point.

“We have some veterans and we have some moving parts, so on the flip side of that it does create a lot of opportunity for our young players… This is good for us. I think this will pay dividends in the long run. At some point you do want to get into that routine of getting five guys working together.”

With Dallas sitting most starters versus the Jaguars, the starting offensive line was: LT Asim Richards, LG Matt Farniok, C Brock Hoffman, RG Josh Ball and RT Matt Waletzko. Richards, a rookie fifth-rounder, played 59 snaps, allowing just two pressures.