Zack Martin won’t be playing guard for the Cowboys anymore, but he will remain part of the landscape at the team’s games for many years to come.
Martin announced his retirement after the end of the 2024 season and the team held a press conference to celebrate his career at their facility on Wednesday. During that press conference, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said that Martin will be added to the franchise’s Ring of Honor.
That decision is not a surprising one. Martin was a seven-time first-team All-Pro and a nine-time Pro Bowler during his time in Dallas.
That level of performance should also make Martin an easy choice for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but he’ll have to wait five years for that shot so the Dallas honor may come first.
When the news landed on Tuesday that the Cowboys have created $20 million in cap space by restructuring the contract of receiver CeeDee Lamb, some applauded Lamb for his selflessness. Lamb himself fueled the perception that he did the team a favor, tweeting this: “I want to win. It’s gonna take more than just myself.”
While that statement may indeed be entirely true and accurate in all respects, Lamb did nothing to spark the restructuring the Cowboys performed to create more 2025 cap wiggle room.
The Lamb contract, like most big-money veteran deals, includes a term that expressly authorizes the team to restructure the deal, whenever it wants.
From the contract: “Player and Club agree that on one or more occasion(s) and at any time during the duration of this NFL Player Contract, the Club, in its sole discretion, shall have the right, but not the obligation, to convert any portion of the Player’s Paragraph 5 Salary into Signing Bonus.”
As to Lamb’s fully-guaranteed $26.85 million 2025 Paragraph 5 salary, the contract provides that “if Club exercises its right to convert any portion of Player’s 2025 Paragraph 5 Salary into a Signing Bonus, then his 2025 Paragraph 5 Guarantee shall be reduced by the amount equal to the portion of the Player’s 2025 Paragraph 5 Salary that as converted to Signing Bonus.”
Lamb’s minimum salary this year is $1.17 million. The Cowboys had the automatic right to convert $25.675 million into a bonus. By spreading it over five years, $5.135 applies to 2025 — and $20.54 million gets move to future years.
It’s not free cap space. Lamb’s cap burden increases for each of the remaining years of the deal by $5.136 million, with another $5.136 million that spills into the first year after the contract expires.
Lamb will still make $26.85 million this year. And it’s actually better for him, because the $25.675 million gets paid out in Texas, where the income tax rate is 0.0 percent.
Regardless, Lamb did nothing to make this happen. His contract from last year gave the Cowboys the right to do it. It’s become a very common term; in the early years of the current cap-based system, teams had to persuade the player to do it. Now, teams routinely do it without any new agreement from the player, because the contract the player has already signed allows the team to do it.
On Tuesday, the Cowboys signed defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa to a four-year deal, in lieu of applying the $25.12 million franchise tag. In a highly unusual move, the terms released by the team differ from the terms leaked — undoubtedly by the player’s camp — to multiple reporters.
So with the thumb-racers saying it’s a four-year deal with a base value of $80 million and $58 million guaranteed but the team characterizing it as a deal with a maximum value of $80 million and $52 million guaranteed, the truth has gotten its pants on.
Here’s the full breakdown of the terms, per a source with knowledge of the contract.
1. Signing bonus: $19.75 million.
2. 2025 offseason workout requirement: $500,000 salary de-escalation if he fails to satisfy the workout obligation.
3. 2025 base salary: $1.75 million, fully guaranteed but subject to the potential $500,000 de-escalation.
4. 2025 active per-game roster bonus: Up to $500,000, fully guaranteed but must be earned.
5. 2026 offseason workout requirement: $500,000 salary de-escalation if he fails to satisfy the workout obligation.
6. 2026 base salary: $16.5 million, fully guaranteed but subject to potential $500,000 de-escalation.
7. 2026 active per-game roster bonus: Up to $500,000, fully guaranteed but must be earned.
8. 2027 offseason workout requirement: $500,000 salary de-escalation if he fails to satisfy the workout obligation.
9. 2027 base salary: $20 million, $13 million of which is guaranteed for injury at signing and becomes fully guaranteed in 2027. The salary is subject to salary de-escalation if he fails to satisfy the workout obligation.
10. 2027 active per-game roster bonus: Up to $500,000.
11. 2028 offseason workout requirement: $500,000 salary de-escalation if he fails to satisfy the workout obligation.
12. 2028 base salary: $20 million, subject to salary de-escalation.
13. 2028 active per-game roster bonus: Up to $500,000.
He’ll make $22 million in 2025, if he satisfies the offseason workout obligation and is on the active roster for all 17 regular-season games. That’s $3.12 million less than he would have made under the tag.
The full guarantee at signing is $39 million, with (as the Cowboys said) a total injury guarantee of $52 million.
As to the base value, it’s technically $80 million. However, $4 million is tied to complying with the offseason workout program for the next four years, and being on the active roster for every regular-season game in each of the next four years.
If Odighizuma had been tagged twice, he would have made $55.264 million through 2026. He’ll instead make $39 million over the next two years, with $2 million tied to offseason workouts and active per-game roster bonuses.
The Cowboys can exit the deal after two years.
So he’s getting $39 million for a two-year commitment in lieu of $25.12 million in 2025 and either $30.144 million next year or a shot at the open market next March.
It’s ultimately his right to take the deal. But even if the Cowboys wouldn’t have tagged him in 2026, he would have needed to make only $13.88 million in 2026 to break even.
To summarize, some players bet on themselves. Some take the bird in the hand. Odighizuwa took the bird in the hand.
The Cowboys signed offensive lineman Brock Hoffman on Tuesday, the team announced.
Hoffman was an exclusive rights free agent.
He will compete to replace right guard Zack Martin, who has retired from the NFL.
Hoffman started seven games for Martin last season after Martin was lost for the season. He also has started two games at center in his career.
Cooper Beebe started 16 games at center for the Cowboys last season as a rookie. Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer said moving Beebe back to guard is on the table but not for now.
Hoffman has experience at both positions.
The Cowboys signed three other players Tuesday, including defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa.
The Cowboys announced Tuesday that defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa has signed his four-year contract.
Patrik Walker of the team website says it is a deal with a “max value of” $80 million, with $52 million guaranteed, which differs from initial reports that called it an $80 million deal with $58 million guaranteed. Odighizuwa could have made $55 million the next two years under the tag, though there is no guarantee the Cowboys would have tagged him in 2026.
The team was prepared to tag him before Tuesday’s 4 p.m. ET tag deadline if they couldn’t get a deal completed and for good reason.
He ranked 10th on PFT’s list of top 100 free agents for this offseason.
Odighizuwa, 26, was a third-round pick in the 2021 draft and has become a critical piece at the 3-technique in Dallas’ defense. He has started all 17 games in each of the past three seasons, playing 78 percent of the defensive snaps in 2024.
Odighizuwa finished last season with 4.5 sacks, five tackles for loss and 23 quarterback hits. In 67 career games, he’s tallied 13.5 sacks, 28 tackles for loss and 58 quarterback hits.
