ESPN:
All these years later, Jerry Jones can finally admit he was wrong.
In the first round of the 2014 draft, the Dallas Cowboys owner made one more pass to speak to the player personnel department and scouts, looking to stoke interest in taking Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel and not guard Zack Martin.
“Everybody was looking at their feet when Jerry was asking questions about who would be for the other guy [Manziel],” executive vice president Stephen Jones said.
Manziel famously flamed out of the NFL in two years. Martin went on to be named a first team All-Pro seven times in his 11 years, tied for the most in team history with Bob Lilly and Randy White. He was named to the Pro Bowl nine times and the 2010 All-Decade Team.
“Best ‘right,’ decision I’ve ever made,” said Jerry Jones, who joked he still has “knots” on his leg from Stephen kicking him under the table that draft night.
On Wednesday, Martin, 34, officially retired from football.
In a 13-minute statement, Martin took those in attendance — which included many former teammates, from quarterbacks Tony Romo and Dak Prescott, offensive linemen Tyron Smith, Travis Frederick, Ronald Leary and La’el Collins, and 2014 draft classmate DeMarcus Lawrence — through his 27-year football journey from youth football in Indiana to high school to Notre Dame to 11 years with the Cowboys.
“I hope I left as much of an impression on this organization as it did on me,” Martin said. “There’s a deep sense of pride in knowing that I gave everything I had to one team, one city and one organization my entire career.”
Martin became the third first-round pick the Cowboys used on an offensive lineman in a four-year span, joining Smith (2011) and Frederick (2013).
“When you look at it and you’re picking that high, you want to make sure you’re right,” Stephen Jones said. “One thing when you read [about] Zack, when you watch Zack on the tape, it was hard to find anything that you didn’t like about him. Just felt that at the end of the day he was the right guy for our football team. He met all the standards. And in no way to be negative toward the other guy we’re talking about, but he just didn’t stack up like that. And so it was real easy.”
Martin was well aware of the Manziel talk when the Cowboys selected him No. 16 overall in 2014. Throughout the years, he downplayed any comparisons to him and the former Heisman Trophy winner.
“Dallas wasn’t even on my radar,” Martin said. “I came down for a visit before the draft but didn’t have much contact outside of there. So going into that night I didn’t really think that Dallas was a possibility. I was at home with some friends and family, so I was having some fun. I was just happy that I got picked and was ready to come down here.”
In 11,184 snaps, Martin was penalized for holding a mere seven times, equal to his first-team All-Pro selections. None came on a pass play.
“People tell me that stat all the time,” Martin said. “I mean those were just the accepted ones. I think I got away with a few third-and long [penalties] that they declined. But we’ll take it.
He was the only the rookie to be named a first-team All-Pro in 2014 and the third Cowboy to accomplish that feat. He did not miss a start for the first four seasons of his career. In 2020, a calf injury limited him 10 games. In 2024, an ankle injury forced him to the sideline, again limiting him to 10 games.
He had surgery to remove bone spurs and fix ligament issues in December, but he waited to make a decision on whether to continue playing. Normally after the Super Bowl has passed, he gets an itch to start working out again for the upcoming season. That itch did not come.
“I’m at peace with my decision,” said Martin, whose wife, Morgan, and three children, Charlie, Hudson and Remi, watched along with Martin’s parents.
Among offensive lineman, Martin’s play is most often compared to former Cowboys Hall of Famer Larry Allen. When Martin visited the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a rookie, he made it a point to take a picture in front of Allen’s bust.
“They’re twins,” Jerry Jones said.
One day Martin will end up in the Hall of Fame, like Allen, and Jones said Martin will be in the Cowboys’ Ring of Honor before he is enshrined in Canton, Ohio.
“He’s about as special a player 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 at Notre Dame about the technique that Zack Martin used. I think that’s going to resonate here with Dallas long after he’s gone. He’ll be a teaching tape. They just don’t make them with the footwork, the base, the launch, his strength, his athleticism and then his mind.
“He’s a rare, rare football player.”
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