Inside The Star
Lost in the joy of seeing the Dallas Cowboys’ offense committing to the run again is the seemingly unchecked decline of one player.
Defensive tackle Mazi Smith, the Cowboys’ first pick in 2023, has been getting manhandled in nearly every one of those running back highlights.
This is one of the better examples. Check out what Tyler Smith does to Mazi Smith on this play:
There’s another video out there of Smith getting shoved all the way into Los Angeles County by rookie Tyler Booker. Oxnard is located in Ventura County, if you wanted to know.
Nor are these the only examples of Smith getting moved out of the way, at times with frightening ease.
This shouldn’t be happening on a regular basis to a veteran player entering his third year. He certainly shouldn’t be bested by a rookie.
Sadly, the Cowboys have seen this very same movie recently involving a first-round defensive lineman pick out of Michigan.
Taco Charlton, from Michigan, was the 28th overall pick by the Cowboys in the first round of the 2017 draft. He badly underperformed in his first two seasons.
By the 2019 season, his third, he had fallen so far that he was inactive for the first two games and finally waived on September 18, 2019.
Charlton would sign with seven different teams between 2019-2023, playing one season for just four of them. In 2023, he signed with both the Jaguars and the 49ers but never played a single snap.
In 2022, he signed with New Orleans in April, was released in August, and latched on with the Bears for less than two months in the season.
If Smith doesn’t turn things around, he could find himself on a similar track. Especially if Jay Toia, this year’s seventh-round pick out of UCLA, can show he’s a better run-stopper.
Or, at the very least, can show he won’t get shoved aside as easily as Smith has been so far in camp.
While Smith isn’t getting it done with his play, if he is destined to be cut, the fault won’t lie one hundred percent on his shoulders.
He’s had a different defensive coordinator every year. And with each change has come a physical demand that he clearly hasn’t been able to meet.
In his rookie year, Dan Quinn turned him into a slightly-oversized linebacker. Making Smith drop 30 pounds took away the reason why he was drafted: to plug up the running lanes.
Last year, Mike Zimmer had him put the weight back on, and he did improve.
But now, reports are that Matt Eberflus is having him dropping the weight once again.
It’s no wonder he is struggling. Maybe the best thing for Smith would be a change of address and a fresh start with a new team.
It certainly couldn’t hurt.
