Year in, year out Cowboys guard Zack Martin is a top-ten offensive guard in the league. According to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), up until last year, Martin was a perennial top-five guard in the NFL, more often than not ending up in the top two. Years ago, when he signed an extension with the team, he got paid like the top guard he was. But years later, after multiple reworked deals and the rising contracts of younger guards, Martin has been unhappy with his compensation, leading to the holdout he is currently staging. 
Despite Martin’s persistence in holding out, Cowboys owner/president/general manager Jerry Jones doesn’t seem interested at all in adjusting Martin’s deal in a way that rewards him for performing at the top of his position. He dropped two sounds bites today, according to Jon Machota of The Athletic, explaining why he doesn’t plan on taking any action. The first put the blame on star defender Micah Parsons. Jones claimed that the team will “need the money to pay” other players like Parsons in the future. The second sound bite claimed he already got his reward five years ago.
“Nothing,” Jones said in response to what needed to happen in order to resolve the situation. “He’ll come to camp when he comes to camp. There’s no resolution. There are a lot of consequences if he doesn’t.” The consequences that Jones is referring to are the daily $50K fines that Martin incurs with each missed day at training camp. So far, Martin has racked up $250K of fines.
“He’s been at the top of the money all the way through,” Jones claimed, “drafted high and got a lot of money, got a lot of money over the years. It’s just hard to get it all. The bottom line is: nothing needs to happen.”
Currently, Martin’s contract gives him the eighth-highest annual average value (AAV) at his position. Yes, he makes a lot of money as the eight-highest paid offensive guard in the NFL, but after delivering as a top player at the position for so long, one could argue he’s severely underpaid. Martin is only set to make $13.5MM this year as two other guards in the league have contracts with AAVs of over $20MM.
Jones claims he’s worried that caving in to Martin’s demands will put him in a situation in which he can’t pay anyone else, according to Michael Gehlken of The Dallas Morning News. “You make an adjustment like that, all of the sudden, you don’t have the money to go pay the guys that are in their first contract that you need to pay.” It’s unclear whether Jones has learned from the mistakes made in the Ezekiel Elliott contract, or if he has just ironically forgotten his own past actions, but these comments are antithetical to his own previous transactions.
This is one of two recent outbursts we’ve seen from team owners of players who are upset with their contract situations. In both instances, the owners seem to think they’re in the right, falling back on bargaining agreements and “how things are done.” In the process, they seem to be alienating the best players on their rosters. Jones very well may end up saving money by not adjusting Martin’s deal, but he may end up losing one of the best guards in the NFL in the process.
Not a JJ fan but he’s right. If he caves here then every last player will be pointing to this negotiation and doing the same. It sets a dangerous precedent. Yeah he’s underpaid, but I forgot….who signed that contract anyway?
Ask Prescott how he feels about not having his all-pro guard in camp and potentially into the season. It’s called salary cap management and every team deals with it. And that cap is going to be significantly higher next year. Jones (and Irsay) both know it. You have to pay your perennial all pros. You don’t win championships without them.
Jones is 100% correct.
It’s rare but Jones is right in this situation. Author is trying to hard to push their personal opinion on it too.
The way “journalism” is these days. Personal bias opinion pieces veiled as news
Doing this would be what the NBA players do now! It’s a shame
JJ mentioned something that’s deliberately swept under the carpet when talking about how players are underpaid. A first round pick makes good change coming in. Thereafter, teams have to juggle the bag. I have Mr. Jones’ back in this.
“The second sound bite claimed he already got his reward five years ago”.
Five years is a lifetime in the NFL. More than 50% of players that are signed don’t last that long.
First ballot HOFer. Had no issue when he received a market record contract for a guard. Had no problem when the team restructured his contract transferring contract funds to instant cash. But now after several years of being the top paid guard he refuses to honor his signature, handshake and word? Players DEMAND longterm commitments at the sametime bark their dissatisfaction when a new contract written years later is better than theirs? Only in sports can you see this nonsense.
Hard to have sympathy for a player who has already signed one market setting deal. If Martin had been playing on a low level contract, his complaint would be more understandable. He has been fairly compensated over his career compared to most players at his position. It seems that the only reason that he is unhappy now is because he has seen “lesser” players surpass him.
Martin was not as elite as we’ve been used to seeing last year. If that trend continues, any hypothetical market setting extension will look quite on Dallas’ part. Martin has been an elite guard for years in the league (2022 not withstanding) and has been healthy, but he is 32. No team is going to give him a deal as proportionately far ahead of the market as his current deal was at the time he signed it.
Don’t sign a deal if you won’t follow through. Despite the Cardinals owner being a dumpster fire, I remember WR Anquan Boldin doing that here in AZ and it struck me as lame.