What Options Do Dallas Cowboys Have to Get Zack Martin Back on Field? Consider Example of Aaron Donald

The company line within the Dallas Cowboys organization has been very clear regarding holdout star Zack Martin throughout the first few days of training camp: silence is the best kind of diplomatic currency.

At Wednesday’s press conference, Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy was asked about Martin’s holdout. “My father always told me this — and I think it’s true — you don’t ever talk about another man’s money, and most importantly, don’t talk about your own,” McCarthy said.

Zack needs to pay attention to the business at hand. We all take that seriously. We continue to hold the same opinion of him. Our football squad will always look to him as a leader. This is a professional matter.

This holdout is just part of the NFL’s business process, the Cowboys love the leadership Martin represents, and any resolution is better left to internal discussions rather than speaking through headlines; this has been the general message from ownership down.

According to the revised collective bargaining agreement, Martin’s absence from camp began on Tuesday, and the team has decided not to discuss the daily $50,000 fines he is accruing as a result.

The CBA eliminates the common practice of retroactively waiving fines, which rendered them meaningless in the past during training camp holdouts.

The last Sunday of the preseason before the regular season begins on September 7 is the deadline for those fines to be paid. That means Martin may lose as much as $2.05 million before the season even begins.

The holdout is unlikely to go that long at this point. However, it is unclear whether the Cowboys would be prepared to renegotiate the 32-year-old Martin’s contract, which still has two years remaining and pays an average of $14 million per year.

Martin is currently the eighth highest paid player at his position in the NFL, and his average annual salary of $7.5 million is significantly lower than that of Atlanta Falcons guard Chris Lindstrom, whose $20.5 million average is now the benchmark.

Martin still has to make a few adjustments despite his advanced years. However, club owner Jerry Jones has made it clear that the “integrity” of the contract and how it fits within the team’s finely tuned salary cap are major factors in whether or not the deal will get done this week.

“Agreements have to be really solid or you couldn’t maintain the process if you reshuffle the deck every time,” Jones added. It’s completely unrelated to Zack. In the current system, especially one as mature as ours (we’ve been working on getting contracts in place and under the cap for years), this is an absolute necessity.

You must put your trust in those legal agreements. That’s a must. This has nothing to do with Zack. The thing is, you can only trust in the legality of your deal.

What kind of trade would the Cowboys make for Martin if they were inspired by Aaron Donald?
The issue today is whether or not there is a solution that both parties can accept, and what form that compromise might take.

There is always a chance that Martin would show up to camp in the coming days and stage a “hold in,” which would exempt him from the $50,000 daily fines but would leave him (and the club) in the uncomfortable position of having to explain why he is back at the facility but is refusing to participate in practices.

No of what happens next, the process of renegotiating pay is still an open subject. Someone in the league who knows both the Cowboys and Martin well has advised that they take a page out of the Los Angeles Rams’ book when it comes to defensive lineman Aaron Donald in the 2022 offseason.

With two years left on his contract and Donald having well exceeded expectations, the Rams reworked his deal to add much more money but also gave a hard pivot point for one extra year that would need what amounted to a $30 million balloon payment if he were to return to the Rams.

What’s the big deal about comparing Donald to Martin? Donald was the most dominant defensive player in the NFL, and he was younger and fresh off the team’s Super Bowl victory.

However, Martin is still one of the greatest guards in the NFL despite turning 33 in November.

A Donald-like deal, modified for age realities, would guarantee Martin around $34 to $36 million over the next two seasons, with either a hard out to free agency in 2025 (or retirement) or some kind of one-year balloon payment by Dallas in 2025 if the team wants to retain him for an additional year.

This would be the most sensible compromise when consulting league and agency sources on a resolution.

“It’s about guaranteeing [Martin] more money over the next two years in exchange for not topping the guard market,” explained one source within the agency. “But it also gives him the chance to hit free agency at the end of the deal or retire.”

This could be the norm for how teams deal with outstanding veterans towards the conclusion of their careers after the Donald set the example.

Only time will tell if this is where Martin and the Cowboys finally call home (if they do so peacefully). Until then, the clock keeps ticking on sanctions ($150,000 and counting according to CBA math), leaving Dallas to patch a sizable hole in the supply line as camp progresses.

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