{"id":200178,"date":"2025-07-12T01:10:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T01:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/200178\/"},"modified":"2025-07-12T01:10:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T01:10:11","slug":"stephen-jones-recalls-decision-to-draft-zack-martin-over-johnny-manziel-jerry-jones-reaction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/200178\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Jones recalls decision to draft Zack Martin over Johnny Manziel, Jerry Jones’ reaction"},"content":{"rendered":"

During the 2014 NFL Draft<\/a>, the Dallas Cowboys found themselves facing a decision. Johnny Manziel<\/a> was falling down the board after a historic run at Texas A&M<\/a>, and they were waiting with the No. 16 overall pick.<\/p>\n

Stephen Jones remembered that moment as the Cowboys weighed whether or not to take the former Heisman Trophy winner. His dad, Jerry, wanted to do so. But others in the room didn\u2019t sound so convinced once Manziel\u2019s name dropped past No. 15.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the Cowboys took Zack Martin<\/a> out of Notre Dame<\/a>. But Jones remembered the moments leading up to that pick \u2013 and the ensuing reaction from his father.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is nothing against Johnny Manziel,\u201d Jones said this week at a Sports Business Journal event<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s a great competitor. And it\u2019s just, do you use your first-round pick? And of course, we had Tony Romo<\/a> in the building. So it was more about that. Do you create that kind of anxiety in the organization by bringing him in? Well, sure enough, Johnny Manziel falls to us. And, boy, we get to going, \u2018Well, let\u2019s talk about Johnny, here he is. We\u2019ve got our guy. This is the future.\u2019 Of course, everybody in the room, I look around, I go, \u2018It\u2019s time for everybody to talk.\u2019 I look around and everybody\u2019s [head is down]. \u2026 I go, \u2018Dad,\u2019 I go, \u2018This is a hard thing because everybody knows you want Johnny. As you heard some of the things, I don\u2019t think he\u2019 the right guy for us.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSo roll the clock forward, we end up picking Zack Martin. And boy, it is tense. Usually, after every pick, we all know, we\u2019re clapping, high-fiving. \u2018Boy, isn\u2019t that a great pick?\u2019 After we picked Zack Martin, an offensive guard from Notre Dame, Jerry looks over at me, slaps me on the leg and he goes, \u2018Son, I didn\u2019t get to buy the Dallas Cowboys \u2013 we\u2019re not sitting here because you do down-the-middle-of-the-road things. What you just did is down the middle. You\u2019ll never be great.\u2019 \u201cHe gets up and storms out.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Stephen Jones looked around, he saw head coach Jason Garrett and director of scouting Larry Lace, who both thanked him for defending the pick.<\/p>\n

But Jerry Jones later returned. When he did, he apologized for his reaction and the room once again celebrated their new guard.<\/p>\n

\u201cLarry Lace was sitting over there and Jason\u2019s sitting there,\u201d Stephen Jones recalled. \u201cThey\u2019re going, \u2018Phew, I\u2019m glad that wasn\u2019t me.\u2019 But they said, \u2018Thank you, thank you, thank you for standing up for taking Zack Martin.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSure enough, Jerry walks back in \u2013 which is typical Jerry \u2013 \u2018That was way over the top. I love you. We did the right thing.\u2019 And we re-celebrated Zack Martin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martin went on to spend his entire career with the Cowboys, announcing his retirement after the 2024 season. He became a seven-time All-Pro selection and made the Pro Bowl all but two years, missing out in 2020 and 2024. Manziel, meanwhile, only played two years with the Cleveland Browns after going No. 22 overall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During the 2014 NFL Draft, the Dallas Cowboys found themselves facing a decision. Johnny Manziel was falling down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2066],"tags":[230,229,257,2461,7,42801,6,42802],"class_list":{"0":"post-200178","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-cowboys","8":"tag-cowboys","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-cowboys","11":"tag-dallascowboys","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-johnny-manziel-11-tivy","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-zack-martin-09-bishop-chatard"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}