Cowboys Had Run Game in Mind with 1st Rd. Pick

Dallas selected highly-touted Notre Dame lineman Zack Martin with the 16th overall pick on Thursday

The Dallas Cowboys had the run game in mind when they selected Notre Dame OT Zack Martin with the 16th overall pick on Thursday night.

Martin will most likely change positions, from tackle to guard, in the NFL--a move that would mean the Cowboys have addressed the interior of the offensive line in the first round of their last two drafts. In a far less praised selection a year ago, they picked up center Travis Frederick 31st overall, and Frederick made an immediate impact, in the running game in particular.

To wit, with Frederick under center, DeMarco Murray put together his first 1,000-yard season and scored a career-high nine touchdowns.

Executive vice president Stephen Jones says Dallas took Martin, in part, in hopes that the Notre Dame product can have a similar impact.

“The other thing these guys do, which I think can only help us and certainly is going to be a focus of ours here in the off-season, as well as the season, is it’s obviously going to help our running game,” Jones said, per the Dallas Morning News. “We were starting to kind of find it there at the second half of last year, and I think we can build on that and obviously have a neat deal in terms of taking pressure off of Tony if we can really establish a sound running game.”

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