FRISCO, Texas — Tyron Smith has officially announced his retirement from the NFL after an outstanding 14-year career that featured eight Pro Bowl nods and five All-Pro honors, all earned with the Dallas Cowboys, making more than good on the decision by owner and general manager Jerry Jones to make Smith the youngest starter in the NFL as the ninth-overall pick in 2011.
Smith, also named to the NFL 2010s All-Decade team, joins fellow former Cowboys' first-round pick Zack Martin in walking into the sunset of retirement this spring — Martin having held his press conference on March 5 — putting the two best friends and longtime teammates on track toward both the Pro Football Hall of Fame and Dallas' coveted Ring of Honor.
Having already declared the latter in March as a no-brainer for Martin, Jones made it clear, in April, that the same is true of Smith.
"There's no question they're [both] going into the Ring of Honor. Let me be real clear about that," Jones said. "Without a question, we've never had a player that has played for the Dallas Cowboys that represents us on and off the field the way [Tyron] has been a part of this team so, yes, he'll be in the Ring of Honor."
The other foregone conclusion is that the Hall of Fame will knock on the doors of Smith and Martin in the near future, at some point following the mandatory five-year waiting period.
"There is no doubt in my mind that you're gonna be in the NFL Hall of Fame," Jones told Smith on Wednesday. "There's no doubt. And just a couple months ago, we were sitting here with another player that will be there in the Hall of Fame. … It is an honor to say that you've been a Dallas Cowboy in your career.
"And I wanna be the first one to shake your hand when you go into that NFL Hall of Fame."
It all begs the added question of if Smith and Martin will be immortalized in Canton in the same year, a sort of tandem induction that is a bit of a unicorn by NFL standards.
That said, if there's ever a time for such an occurrence to take place within the Pro Football Hall of Fame, it would be with two players who are retiring at the same time and who are viewed by many, if not everyone, as first-ballot worthy, with a combined 17 Pro Bowl nods and 14 All-Pro honors.
That means the 2030 voting process could be one of the more special evenings in the history of both the league and of the Cowboys organization.
It just feels right.
