The Dallas Cowboys have reportedly reworked All-Pro right guard Zack Martin‘s contract in order to open up salary cap space this year. This potentially allows them to spread a cap hit over the 2025 and 2026 seasons, if 2024 ends up being his final year with the team, per ESPN.
The 33-year-old’s contract was set to expire after this season, but he had three voidable years through 2027. Dallas gained about $13 million in space for 2024 by reworking Martin’s deal, which gets the Cowboys under the $255 million cap before the new league year begins on March 13.
With the additional nonvoidable years no longer on his contract, the dead money in his deal would have been close to $25 million if he did not play for Dallas after this season. Prior to reworking his contract, the Cowboys were looking at about $60 million in dead money against the 2025 cap with the expiring contracts of Martin, Demarcus Lawrence, Brandin Cooks and Dak Prescott. A potential release of Michael Gallup could add more than $8 million in dead money against the cap next year.
From 2017 to 2023, dead money accounted for anywhere from 8% to 18.2% of the Cowboys’ cap, according to Roster Management System data. On a projected 2025 cap of $270 million, that dead money figure could be between 22% and 37%.
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Last summer, Dallas gave Martin an $8.5 million raise in 2023 and 2024 after he held out for a portion of training camp, going from $27.5 million to $36 million guaranteed. As a result, Martin’s deal made him the third-highest-paid guard in the league, trailing only Chris Lindstrom of the Atlanta Falcons and Quenton Nelson of the Indianapolis Colts.
Martin started 15 games last season, missing one game with an ankle injury and another with an illness, as he was selected as a Pro Bowler for the ninth time in his career and an All-Pro for the seventh time. Martin trails only Hall of Famers Bob Lilly (11), Larry Allen (10) and Mel Renfro (10), plus Jason Witten (11), who is not yet eligible for the Hall of Fame, for the most Pro Bowl selections in Cowboys history.
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