Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones thinks drafting guard Zack Martin over quarterback Johnny Manziel might be the best call of the past 50 years.
When the Dallas Cowboys came up on the clock in the first-round of the 2014 NFL Draft, some thought that owner and general manager Jerry Jones wouldn’t be able to resist the temptation of drafting Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel. Instead, Jones and the Cowboys selected Notre Dame guard Zack Martin with the pick.
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It wasn’t a sexy pick, but one that has paid huge dividends. Martin was part of a line that helped running back DeMarco Murray lead the league in rushing and break Emmitt Smith’s single season record with the Cowboys.
Martin was also named an All-Pro, one of four on the Cowboys roster and the first Cowboys rookie to earn the honor in 45 years.
So what does Jones think about the pick now with the benefit of hindsight? He thinks it might have been the best draft day decision he made in the past 15 years.
“Really we had Manziel and we had Zack Martin,” Jones said, via the Dallas Morning News. “We really couldn’t have known the quality of the player that Zack Martin is. It’s just been so much more than we could’ve expected and he had a very significant career at Notre Dame.
“We certainly needed — I should be looking at the future after Romo. But I decided right there the future of Romo is too far down the road when he won’t be our quarterback to be developing a quarterback like Manziel during these next few years. It just didn’t work time wise, so we had to settle on that pick, Martin, which may be one of the best if not best pick we’ve made around here in the last 15 years.”
Manziel got a chance to start with the Cleveland Browns, the franchise that ended up drafting him. He hasn’t necessarily impressed when he has played, albeit with a very small sample size to grade him on.
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