DeMarcus Lawrence and Zack Martin exit leaves a leadership void
With Zack Martin’s retirement and DeMarcus Lawrence deciding to continue his career with the Seattle Seahawks, a new era is officially underway with the Dallas Cowboys. These two players have been stalwarts ever since they joined the organization and neither will be easily replaced anytime soon for what they both accomplished on and off the field.
While replacing either Martin or Lawrence in the starting lineup is as simple as plugging in the next man up, the production likely won’t be on par. That’s to be expected when trying to replace two players that have been building blocks for the organization for over a decade now, especially considering the caliber of players they’ve been.
For 11 years Martin has been a dominant force as the Cowboys right guard. The 16th overall pick in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft has been a seven-time First-Team All-Pro, a two-time Second-Team All-Pro, and has been named to the Pro Bowl in nine of his 11 seasons before deciding to retire from the league.
Lawrence has also spent 11 years holding down the fort at defensive end for the Cowboys. The 34th overall pick in the second round of the 2014 NFL Draft is a four-time Pro Bowl player and was also a Second-Team All-Pro in 2017. Watching him depart and continue his career in Seattle won’t be easy.
In Martin and Lawrence, the Dallas Cowboys are losing two of their best and most experienced players on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball. With those two now gone they are also losing two of their best leaders who are highly-respected around the league.
Without them, the leadership on the team will need someone else to step up. Some of that will hopefully come from Brian Schottenheimer and his new coaching staff, but Dallas still needs someone to step into leadership roles. Offensively they still have Dak Prescott, but who will step up on the defensive side of the ball?
Micah Parsons seems to be the logical choice. From a talent standpoint there is none better on the entire roster and he has a type of personality where he could convince his teammates to rally around him, potentially thriving in a leadership role. The only question is, will he embrace that role or not? It appeared that he was taking steps in this direction over the last season, now he will need to embrace it fully.
It’s going to be really interesting to see how all this plays out moving forward. Leadership may seem like a small thing, however, when it comes to accountability both on and off the field, it was good to have players like Martin and Lawrence to be the glue to hold everything together. Hopefully someone steps up to embrace the leadership role.
