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Todd Archer
Frisco, Texas – All these years later, Jerry Jones can finally admit that he was wrong.
In the first round of the 2014 Draft, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys made one more pass to talk to the Personnel Department of Players and the Explorers, seeking to be interested in taking the Texas Mariscal de Campo de Texas A & M Johnny Manziel and not the Zack Martin guard.
“Everyone looked at their feet when Jerry was asking questions about who would be for the other guy [Manziel]”said Executive Vice President Stephen Jones.
Manziel famous outside the NFL in two years. Martin became appointed first team All-Pro seven times in his 11 years, tied in most of the team’s history with Bob Lilly and Randy White. It was named for the Pro Bowl nine times and the 2010 All-Decade team.
“The best ‘correct’ decision, I have taken,” said Jerry Jones, who joked that he still has “knots” on Stephen’s leg kicking him under the table that draft night.
On Wednesday, Martin, 34, officially retired from football.
In a 13 -minute statement, Martin took the attendees, which included many former teammates, from the field marshal Tony Romo and Dak Prescott, the offensive liner Tyron Smith, Travis Frederick, Ronald Leary and La’el Collins, and the 2014 Draft of Classmarcus Lawrence, through its 27 -year -old football trip in Indiana to school secondary to school secondary to the 11 -year -old note.
“I hope I have left as much impression on this organization as in me,” Martin said. “There is a deep sense of pride to know that I gave everything I had to a team, a city and an organization all my career.”
“I’ve been fortunate to live a dream,” Zack Martin. pic.twitter.com/yiko9jr5cn
– Todd Archer (@toddarcher) March 5, 2025
Martin became the third first round that the cowboys used in an offensive liner in a period of four years, joining Smith (2011) and Frederick (2013).
“When you look at him and you are chosen, you must make sure you are right,” said Stephen Jones. “One thing when you read [about] Zack, when you look at Zack on the tape, it was difficult to find something you didn’t like. I simply felt that at the end of the day it was the right guy for our football team. He knew all the standards. And in no way to be negative with the other type we are talking about, but he simply did not accumulate that way. And so it was really easy. “
Martin was aware of Manziel’s talk when the cowboys selected him No. 16 in general in 2014. Over the years, he minimized any comparison with him and the former winner of the Heisman trophy.
“Dallas was not even on my radar,” Martin said. “I visited a visit before the draft, but I didn’t have much contact out there. So when I really did not think Dallas was a possibility. I was at home with some friends and family, so I was having fun. I was happy to have been chosen and I was ready to come here.”
In 11,184 snapshots, Martin was penalized for holding only seven times, equal to his first team selections. None came in a pass play.
“People tell me that statistic all the time,” Martin said. “I mean those were just those accepted. I think [penalties] They denied. But we will take it.
He was the only rookie who was named the first team in 2014 and the third cowboy to achieve that feat. The beginning was not lost during the first four seasons of his career. In 2020, a calf injury limited 10 games. In 2024, an ankle injury forced the bench, limited it again to 10 games.
He underwent surgery to eliminate bone spurs and solve ligament problems in December, but waited to make a decision about whether to continue playing. Normally after the Super Bowl has passed, it has a itching to start exercising again for the next season. That itch did not come.
“I am at peace with my decision,” said Martin, whose wife, Morgan, and three children, Charlie, Hudson and Remi, observed together with Martin’s parents.
Among the offensive line, Martin’s work is more frequently compared with the former member of the Cowboys Hall of Fame, Larry Allen. When Martin visited the Hall of Fame of Professional Football as a rookie, he set out to take a photo in front of Allen’s bust.
“They are twins,” said Jerry Jones.
One day, Martin will end in the Hall of Fame, like Allen, and Jones said Martin will be in the Cowboys Ring of Honor before being consecrated in Canton, Ohio.
“He is a player as special as you can find,” Romo said. “I think Zack Martin and Larry Allen are the two best guards in the history of the NFL … They teach in Notre Dame about the technique that Zack Martin used. I think that will resonate here with Dallas long after he has left. It will be a teaching tape. They simply do not do them with the feet work, the base, the launch, their strength, their athlete and then their mind.
“He is a rare and weird soccer player.”
