SEATTLE — Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones caught up with the media during pregame for the team's second preseason contest against the Seattle Seahawks just days after coming to an agreement with six-time All-Pro Zack Martin on a contract re-negotiation.
Despite the negotiations getting shaky from an outside perspective, Jones said that he never felt like it wouldn't get done in time to see him on the field to start the season.
"No, not at all," Jones said about if he felt it might not get done. "He's indispensable. We had to have him on the field. He never, in any way, gave any indication to me that he was not gonna be on the field. We felt the way he felt and he obviously felt the way we felt, that's why he's here."
One of the negotiation points for Jones during Martin's holdout was that the team needed the money that he was requesting to pay upcoming extensions for Micah Parsons, CeeDee Lamb and others.
"It's gonna be more difficult," he said. "We have less money, but that's OK. What we don't have, we put it to good use. It's going to the right man. We need Zack. We're gonna need these other guys too, but we'll have to get in and work through. It's what you're dealing with, it's nothing exact here."
Things eventually came together while the team and ownership were back in Dallas for the Cowboys' preseason opener against Jacksonville, as Jones didn't see a reason to continue the holdout with such a promising season ahead.
"I feel good about this team," he said. "It had everything to do with what we did with Zack. I didn't feel like we needed to have a hiccup there. That influenced me a lot."
Martin returned to the team on Monday after a 26-day holdout that saw him miss the first three weeks of training camp in Oxnard.
