Cowboys would be wise to follow subtle advice from Zack Martin about young linemen, balance in offense

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The Cowboys should pay attention to Zack Martin’s advice.

The Dallas Cowboys are officially living in a post-Zack Martin world, with the All-Pro, future Ring of Honor and Hall of Fame member already holding his retirement press conference. The Cowboys are in the midst of changing their approach under new head coach Brian Schottenheimer, and immediately having a player the caliber of Martin to replace at right guard will certainly put the front office and coaching staff’s “selectively aggressive” plan to the test.

The Cowboys are no strangers to investing heavily in the offensive line and supporting coaches that believe in making this position group the lifeblood of the team. With so many other roster holes for Schottenheimer to address though, they must find a dynamic way to do so that involves developing young players and not relying on having the type of situation Martin stepped into where established stars like Tyron Smith and Travis Frederick were already in place playing at a high level. The only outside additions the Cowboys have made to their offensive line so far in free agency are Robert Jones and Dakoda Shepley, but unlike in past offseasons, both players are far from the biggest name the team has acquired overall.

The Cowboys came into this signing period with so many needs, that even their unexpected and frankly surprising flurry of moves can be met with the criticism they became so necessary thanks to the team not having the depth needed to compete at all last season. This is still a franchise that’s going to favor drafting at certain positions and relying on younger talent at these spots though, and right now the Cowboys are making a clear statement about where they plan on doing this by the positions they haven’t addressed with an outside signing or trade.

There is another element to how the Cowboys can create an ideal situation through the rebuild of their offensive line, and it is already something they’ve talked about numerous times as a major point of emphasis this offseason. Zack Martin even dropped some insight into the topic when answering questions at his press conference. If you haven’t guessed by now, we’re once again talking about the running game for the Cowboys.

When asked about when he knew he had adjusted to play in the NFL after seemingly making it look “too easy” as a rookie in 2014, Martin had this to say:

“I came into a perfect situation for a young offensive linemen. The running game was a big part of what we did. It really allowed me to develop. A lot of young linemen get thrown into the fire throwing the ball 50 times a game. We were running it 30-40 times a game, it allowed me to develop some of those things I wasn’t great at when I first got here.”

Just using the eight games starting quarterback Dak Prescott played in last season, the Cowboys threw the ball 323 times and ran it just 173 times. In the three games they won in this stretch, the Cowboys beat the Browns with a +7 differential in passing 32 to 25, the Giants with a +4 advantage with the pass 27 to 23, and the Steelers with +11 more passes compared to runs at 42-31. When this differential ballooned to numbers like 18 in Week 2, 35 in Week 3, 27 in Week 6, and 29 in Week 9, the Cowboys lost by 25, three (but trailed by 22 in the second half), 38 to the Lions, and six to the Falcons in Prescott’s last appearance of the year. This was a Mike McCarthy offense designed to have balance, but lacked the personnel to achieve this.

The Cowboys seem hellbent on bringing in the personnel to have a stronger run game, with clear needs on both sides of the equation in the backfield and up front. Making the stronger commitment to a running back may actually be the key to getting the most out of the developing offensive line, where last year’s rookie starters Tyler Guyton and Cooper Beebe are still in place and ready to build on being day one starters to make a year two jump under OC Klayton Adams and highly-regarded OL coach Conor Riley.

Yes, the Cowboys have brought in new running backs Javonte Williams and Miles Sanders, but lost last year’s most productive player here in Rico Dowdle. The Panthers signing Dowdle is what made Sanders expendable to them, and allowed the Cowboys to pull off something of a swap. A depth chart of Williams, Sanders, Malik Davis, and Deuce Vaughn still falls well short of the imposing run game Martin described as such an enhancement to his game early on. This is why many expect Dallas to still be aggressively targeting running back early in the draft, leaving just the offensive line as a position where they may be more dependent on incumbent talent taking the next step. As Martin also alluded to, these two things go hand in hand, should the Cowboys actually draft a running back that makes a day one impact.

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The Cowboys are not going to fix all of their roster needs and be some version of the super-team that their bitter rival Philadelphia Eagles just assembled to win the Super Bowl in Schottenheimer’s first offseason. What they are learning is how to lean harder into the position groups that do have established talent, and make the few current strengths they have even stronger in hopes of establishing an identity. The Cowboys have all but renamed AT&T Stadium to “We Want to Run The Ball Stadium” while sending the message of what they hope this identity can be. The defensive front seven under new DC Matt Eberflus has become the primary focus ahead of the draft in hopes of complementing this identity, giving the Cowboys a more tough-nosed and athletic group to pair with their potential ball-controlling run game.

For all of the complications of football, a team as desperate as the Cowboys to get back to the basics in a lot of ways could do well to start with four that any coach at any level will preach the importance of. Protect the quarterback on offense, get after the opposing quarterback on defense, run the ball effectively on offense, stop the run defensively. Of these four elements, the Cowboys have seen before how their own elite run game can mask over a lot of deficiencies in the other three. For example, the 2014 Cowboys were led in sacks by Jeremy Mincey with six and Henry Melton with five. It would take a long time in any conversation about that year’s team to bring up the pass rush, because so many other elements were working at a high level to make Dallas successful, none more so than the ground game.

If the opinion of one of the best players in franchise history means anything to Jerry and Stephen Jones, who both beamed with pride sitting to the left and right of Zack Martin at his press conference, they will continue to see the merits in looking to build up a strong run game again. If successful, the Cowboys could get the best football out of left guard Tyler Smith, center Cooper Beebe, and right tackle Terence Steele who all excel at getting out in space to block running plays. This will also be key in supporting Prescott with the strong play-action game that Schottenheimer has alluded to, and playing the elusive complementary style of football that allows their defense to play with the lead more often. For a team expected to blitz less often under Eberflus compared to their one season under Mike Zimmer, this is an all-important detail for the defense. New linebackers Kenneth Murray and Jack Sanborn are both players that Dallas ideally wants playing downhill as often as possible, not constantly dropping into pass coverage.

Schottenheimer was also a coordinator under McCarthy over the stretch of time the former head coach swore he would make the team more physical overall, something the Cowboys already have some of the pieces to achieve up front but continue to lack in the backfield despite their additions. If last year’s unsatisfying answer of Ezekiel Elliott was the response to who this team wants in a tough short yardage situation, their current options may somehow be even worse. The Cowboys will have their opportunity in next month’s draft to solve for this role at minimum, and a whole lot more should they want to by targeting any number of backs in a deep class.

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It is slightly poetic that the best, most recent example of the Cowboys playing this style came in Zack Martin’s rookie season, one that ended in what he laughingly referred to as the “Dez catch” in the Divisional playoffs at the Packers. A full eleven years later, the Cowboys are facing lining up without Martin for the first time, having missed out on the playoffs as the result of a down year spurred by 2023’s Wild Card loss also to the Packers.

Unfortunately, for as dominant and humble as Martin will be remembered for in his playing days, the Cowboys front office also has to face the fact he’s the latest team legend to retire with minimal playoff success, never reaching the conference championship game. Learning this lesson by directly getting back to the type of play that Martin excelled in over his prime years, the idea of using top resources in the draft at running back are starting to make more and more sense. The Cowboys deserve a lot of credit for how they’ve stepped out of their comfort zone and attacked other roster needs to make the possibility of drafting a running back as high as 12th overall much more comfortable.