DALLAS — The Dallas Cowboys bucked a trend that had been 32 years in the making when they selected defensive tackle Mazi Smith in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft.
Before making Smith the 26th overall pick, the last time the Cowboys picked a defensive tackle in the first round was in 1991 when they made Russell Maryland the first overall selection.
At 6 feet, 3 inches tall, 335 pounds, the Cowboys drafted Smith out of the University of Michigan, where he was a First-team All-Big Ten player in 2022. Smith is a big-bodied defensive tackle who does his best work as a run stuffer on the interior of the defensive line, so he’ll be able to help the Cowboys with one of their biggest defensive problem areas from the past few seasons.
Dallas finished 22nd in the league against the run in 2022, 16th in 2021, and next to last in 2020, giving up close to 160 yards on the ground during the COVID-altered campaign during coach Mike McCarthy’s first season. The defense hasn’t finished inside the top 10 against the run or given up under 100 yards per game since the 2018 season. It was beyond time to find a run stopping defensive tackle and it was one of the weak links on the Cowboys.
“He’s a great fit for us,” said McCarthy. “One of our many strengths on defense is that we take the ball away and have a really good pass rush. We just want to get better on earlier downs.’’
At his size, Smith is a freakish athlete, who has the agility to slice into the backfield and chase down plays. Smith also has the power to hold his ground in the run game. Smith has ridiculous strength and has no issue standing up offensive linemen, easily moving them aside to clog running lanes. According to Pro Football Focus, Smith had the 15th best run-stop rate in college football last season.
While he is exactly what the Cowboys need in the run game, Smith hasn’t yet offered much as a pass rusher. The 21-year-old defensive tackle had just half a sack in his three years at Michigan, but Dallas surely believes that there’s more to his pass rush ability that they can unlock once he enters defensive coordinator Dan Quinn’s defense.
Earlier in the offseason, the Cowboys re-signed veteran defensive tackle Jonathan Hankins to a one-year deal, and he should be the starter in 2023 while Smith learns on the job. There might not be a better mentor for Smith than Hankins, who he’ll likely eventually replace. With Smith and Hankins manning the middle, it should allow the Cowboys linebackers to run freely to the ball, something that benefits middle linebacker Leighton Vander Esch.
The selection also pleased prized All-Pro defender Micah Parsons, who may see less attention with Smith occupying offensive linemen beside him.
The arrival of Smith gives the Cowboys a solid rotation with Hankins, Osa Odighizuwa and Neville Gallimore on the inside. It could also spell the end of the Quinton Bohanna experiment.
Fans of the Cowboys had grown accustomed to the team not taking defensive tackle seriously enough in the draft, but that changed with Smith’s selection. The team identified a weakness and sought out to fix it by re-signing Hankins and picking one of the draft's best athletes in Smith.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones admitted that they had Smith ranked as the 13th or 14th player on their draft board, a second-round grade, after giving only 11 players a first-round grade. When asked to clarify Smith’s placement, an animated Jones responded, 'Who gives a s***? Really? We got him."
This wasn’t an expected pick, but the sky’s the limit for Smith. So much for an offensive draft in Dallas as Quinn’s influence in the war room remains high and now he has a player with all the tools in the world to work with, some of which went unused in college.
The Cowboys could’ve gone in a few other directions with this pick, but they identified Smith – one of their 30 pre-draft visitors – as a player they liked and trusted their evaluation.
Grade: B+ - The Cowboys invested at a position that rarely gets resources and now have a big body to bolster their ability to stop the run, a facet of the defense that lagged behind the rest of Quinn’s unit.
The grade reflects the fact that the Cowboys potentially could have traded down and still selected Smith if they had been creative enough but they appear to have gotten a player that they like at a position that needed attention.
What grade would you give the Cowboys for their first round selection of defensive tackle Mazi Smith? Share your thoughts with Ben on Twitter @BenGrimaldi.
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