{"id":218168,"date":"2025-02-20T13:00:03","date_gmt":"2025-02-20T18:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=218168"},"modified":"2025-02-20T10:04:52","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T15:04:52","slug":"espn-chiefs-named-best-fit-cowboys-zack-martin-free-agent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/02\/20\/espn-chiefs-named-best-fit-cowboys-zack-martin-free-agent\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN: Chiefs Named “Best Fit” For Cowboys Legendary Free Agent"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Kansas City Chiefs will likely lose free agent guard Trey Smith to a higher bidder, and they could replace him with a potential Hall of Famer in Zack Martin. A first-round pick in the 2014 NFL Draft<\/a>, the Notre Dame product quickly became one of the most dominant players at his position. Making nine Pro Bowls and seven First-Team All-Pro honors, Martin is a legendary player set to reach the market after an injury-plagued 2024. While the Dallas Cowboys probably want to retain their homegrown talent, ESPN’s Matt Bowen<\/a> believes he could join a new team for the first time in his professional career<\/p>\n

In a recent article, the NFL analyst named the Chiefs as Martin’s “best fit” in free agency. Keep in mind that this article assumes Kansas City loses Smith and is in the market for a starting-caliber guard. If Smith stays in Kansas City, Zack Martin will not sign with the Chiefs as a free agent. However, if Bowen’s prediction is correct and Smith leaves for a larger paycheck, then Martin is in play.<\/p>\n

“Last season, Martin played in 10 games due to a right ankle injury, but his pass block win rate of 93.7% ranked 15th among guards. He could help keep the Chiefs interior strong (though the OT position also needs a lengthy look this offseason).”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

ESPN: Chiefs Could Steal Free Agent Zack Martin From Cowboys<\/h2>\n

Zack Martin is no longer an elite player, but the impending free agent is still an above-average starter who makes perfect sense for a legitimate contender. The Chiefs fit this bill, as they made the Super Bowl in each of the past three seasons but fell short in their latest matchup with the Philadelphia Eagles<\/a>. Now armed with just under $8 million in cap space, the organization lacks the spending power to re-sign Trey Smith to a market-level contract.<\/p>\n

Smith is arguably the best player, regardless of position, set to hit free agency and could easily eclipse $20 million per year. This is a lot of money to invest in a guard, especially when the Chiefs already spent big on Joe Thuney<\/a> and Creed Humphrey. Zack Martin will earn a decent contract, but it won’t come close to what Smith receives as a free agent. Kansas City is a logical landing spot, but will Dallas let him leave?<\/p>\n

Money Woes<\/h3>\n

Despite being the league’s most valuable franchise, the Dallas Cowboys might not have the financial resources to sign Zack Martin as a free agent. As of this posting, the team has just\u00a0 $2.4 million in cap space, and Dallas must set some money aside to extend homegrown superstar Micah Parsons<\/a>. Martin is one of the best players in the storied history of the Cowboys, but all good things must come to an end.<\/p>\n

For what it’s worth, executive vice president Stephen Jones<\/a> has already prepared his fanbase<\/a> for a slow offseason. Saying that financial resources are going to be “really, really tight,” Dallas doesn’t appear to be in a position to spend up for premium talent. The Chiefs might not have that much financial wiggle room, but it shouldn’t be too hard for them to outbid the Dallas Cowboys.<\/p>\n

Main Photo: Andrew Deib – Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Dallas Cowboys could lose impending free agent and franchise legend Zack Martin to the Kansas City Chiefs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2376,"featured_media":218177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16,19],"tags":[7811,7422,7240,1559],"class_list":["post-218168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chiefs","category-cowboys","tag-chiefs-featured","tag-dallas-cowboys-news","tag-trey-smith","tag-zack-martin"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218168"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":218178,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218168\/revisions\/218178"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}