Do you remember 2014? Well back than Dallas Cowboys avoided disaster by spending their 16th overall pick on Zack Martin. The disaster we refer to is Johnny Manziel who is now struggling to put his career back together while Martin is in line for a big pay-day.
As thing stand now, Cowboys will have to open up big if they want Martin now. This right guard is a Pro Bowl, All-Pro type player who definitely demands a lot of commas on his paycheck and this is justified by the fact that Martin is one of the, if not the best, at his position in the NFL today. Thanks to the fact that Ronald Leary is signing with the Denver Broncos, the Cowboys are left with four linemen who could make history, and one of those four is Martin. If you didn’t know Leary earned a four-year deal worth $36 million, $20 million of it was guaranteed, and he turned 28 last April.
According to spotrac.com we found out just how the rest of the NFL look like in terms of paying their guards? Apparently, the Cleveland Browns are spending the most amount of cap dollars in 2017 for the guard spot, which is near $30 million mark for the guard position for the Browns. As of now, the Cowboys are spending just under seven million. Here is how the rest are holding up. We have the list of top 5 highest paid players at this position heading into 2017.
5. Marshal Yanda | $9.125.220 | Baltimore Ravens | Age: 32
4. Mike Iupati | $9.700.000 | Arizona Cardinals | Age: 30
3. David DeCastro | $11.050.000 | Pittsburgh Steelers | Age: 27
2. Joel Bitonio | $12.237.813 | Cleveland Browns | Age: 25
1. Kelechi Osemele | $13.500.000 | Oakland Raiders | Age: 27
Just as a reference we must say that the Cowboys are using $2.853.391 of cap money towards Martin in 2017 which puts him in 33rd place on the list. He was signed till 2018, but naturally, the franchise is aiming to tie him for a long run. The financial situation over at Cowboys is helped a lot by Tony Romo leaving which means they have additional $14 million to inject into the deals of players.
There is no doubt that Martin is a reliable feature in the offense. He has started all 48 regular season games in his first three years in the NFL, and as an addition, he has started all three possible playoff games the Cowboys entered in. He is definitely a sure thing here.
