According to Ian Rapoport, the Cowboys are “deep in talks” with G Zack Martin regarding a long-term extension that would make him the highest paid guard in the NFL.
Rapoport says that the Cowboys have made “substantial offers” that would make him “at or near” the highest paid guard in the league, which would top Browns G Kevin Zeitler‘s $12 million annual salary.
Rapoport adds that although progress is being made, nothing is imminent at this point in time and a deal could be finalized closer to the start of the regular season unless Martin decides he wants to play through the final year of his contract.
Yesterday, Cowboys executive VP Stephen Jones mentioned that they’re still in contract negotiations with Martin, but there’s no deadline for a deal to get done.
“I’m never going to put a deadline on something like that,” Jones said, via Todd Archer of ESPN. “Sometimes players don’t like to think about it a lot, but then you’re able to work behind the scenes sometimes and still get it to where they’re comfortable. But obviously we’re going to respect Zack and how he wants the mechanics of the process to work and we’ll work within those. I fully suspect we’ll work something out at some point in time and he’ll be a Dallas Cowboy for most of his career, in my mind.”
Martin, 26, is a former first-round pick of the Cowboys back in 2014. He was entering the final year of his four-year, $8.967 million contract and stands to make a base salary of $1,642,881 for the 2017 season when Dallas picked up his fifth-year option earlier this offseason.
Martin will make around $9.341 million for the 2018 season under his fifth-year option, which is guaranteed only for injury and won’t prevent them from working on a long-term extension over the next year.
In 2016, Martin appeared in all 16 games for the Cowboys and is rated by Pro Football Focus as the No. 3 guard out of 75 qualifying players.
We’ll have more regarding a new deal for Martin as the news is available.
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