A Dallas Cowboys legend says goodbye. Zack Martin, one of the NFL’s best guards in recent years, is ending his career.

The Dallas Cowboys are currently facing a number of changes, including Brian Schottenheimer leading the team into the upcoming season as the new head coach. However, he will have to do so without a long-standing pillar of the Texans.

As the “NFL Network” reported, Zack Martin has informed the Cowboys that he wants to end his career. Dallas thus loses one of the league’s best guards of the past ten years.

The 34-year-old was drafted in the first round by the Cowboys in 2014 and developed into an indispensable part of the offensive line in the following years.

Martin started a total of 162 regular season games, plus nine playoff games. He was named First-team All-Pro, i.e. best player at his position in a season, seven times.

Retirement was on the horizon

His retirement does not come as a surprise, however. Even before the past season, he was toying with the idea of retiring in 2025. “I’m not 100 percent committed, but it’s definitely a possibility,” he said last June.

An ankle injury that forced him to end the season prematurely after week ten made the step seem even more likely. He played his last game on November 18, 2024 against the Houston Texans.