Zack Martin’s season is over. Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy told reports that Martin will undergo season-ending surgery on his right ankle that has been troubling him for some time.
Martin has missed the past two games with an ankle and shoulder injury and now there’s some doubt if whether he will be back in 2025 or not.
“I think you just have to take a step back and deal with one thing at a time, and that’s frankly the conversation that Zack and I had,” McCarthy said. “The focus is really about the surgery, what’s next. And I think those are all questions that I’m sure that will be asked or will be thought about. But he really, in my conversations with him, his focus is on getting the surgery and trying to do the best he can with this ankle because obviously this is, I think, the third surgery that he’ll have on that ankle.”
Martin said he is scheduled to have surgery next week.
Martin, who turned 34 last month, is under contract through 2025; however, when the deal was restructured last offseason, it was designed to help spread out a salary ap hit over the 2025 and 2026 seasons if he retired. If Martin is on the roster the fifth day of the 2025 league year, he would be guaranteed $40 million in 2026. Had the Cowboys not made that move, Martin would have counted nearly $25 million against the 2025 cap.
In Martin’s absence, the Cowboys have started Brock Hoffman at right guard and have had two of their better rushing performances, including the first 100-yard effort since Week 3 of the 2023 season from Rico Dowdle.
