Zack Martin on being away from Cowboys camp during holdout: 'It was definitely difficult'

After a three-week holdout, Dallas Cowboys guard Zack Martin is relieved to have finally reached a deal so he can rejoin the team in preseason camp.

He admitted holding out was a bit of a rough process.

“Three weeks doesn’t seem that long, but when you’re sitting in Dallas in 110-degree heat every day and seeing your guys out there having fun at training camp, it seems a little bit longer than it is,” Martin told reporters Tuesday, according to The Athletic’s Jon Machota.

Dallas 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.

So the parties had clearly been able to work together in the past.

Still, until a deal was done it was easy to wonder if the relationship might sour beyond the point of repair.

“It was definitely difficult,” Martin said. “If you would’ve asked me a few years ago if I’d ever be a holdout guy, I would probably say no. That’s what I felt it had to come down to to reach some of my goals that I was looking for. Luckily, it worked out.”

Mike McCarthy ecstatic about the deal

One person who was absolutely over the moon with the Zack Martin contract agreement was coach Mike McCarthy, who now gets his All-Pro right guard back.

Martin would have been incredibly tough to replace up front.

The head coach shared his reaction with ESPN NFL Nation reporter Todd Archer on Tuesday.

“A lot of high fives and hugs all day and night yesterday once he got in,” McCarthy said. “Yeah, I think it showed what he means to us and what he means to our football team and I know especially the offense. But it is a business, you know? This is a part of our industry but we’re connecting and what we need to do to win and he’s a big part of that.”

With his salary increase, Martin is now the third-highest-paid guard in the league going into the 2023 season. It’s still not as much as Chris Lindstrom of the Falcons or Quenton Nelson of the Colts, but the deal is also fully guaranteed, which is a nice bonus for the almost 33-year-old.

On3’s Nikki Chavanelle and Nick Geddes also contributed to this report.