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Dallas Cowboys defensive tackle Mazi Smith.
It takes a lot to write off any NFL first round draft pick after one season. Usually doesn’t happen. Even in the cutthroat world of professional sports, we’re going to spot you at least one year.
Two years, though? After two years, we know some things.
In the case of Dallas Cowboys defensive tackle and 2023 first round pick (No. 26 overall) Mazi Smith, the first 2 years of his career have not gone very well and it’s fair to say 2025 is more than just a “prove it” year for him. If he continues to underperform, it’s easy to see the Cowboys trying to trade him at some point during this season or after.
One likely scenario would be moving Smith before the NFL trade deadline to a team in desperate need of an interior run defender and before his value in a trade dips anymore than it already has.
“Former first-rounder Mazi Smith endured a particularly tough 2024 campaign,” PFF’s Mason Cameron wrote on May 9. “He posted an abysmal 34.7 PFF overall grade, marking his second consecutive season of earning a sub-48.0 grade. Although Dallas signed Solomon Thomas in free agency, that doesn’t profile as the answer to the Cowboys’ 30th-ranked run-defense grade (48.0).”
To be clear, Smith’s PFF grade puts him among the worst defensive tackles in the NFL — 207th out of 219 eligible players at his position.
‘Rare Combination of Power and Agility’
Smith had NFL draftniks salivating after The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman put him at No. 1 on his annual college football “Freaks” list in 2022, saying the 6-foot-3, 337-pound University of Michigan star had a unique combination of power and agility “so rare, in fact, it’s hard to find the right superlative to begin with.”
In 2022, Smith was named All-Big Ten Conference after leading the Wolverines to the College Football Playoff semifinals with 49 tackles, 1.0 sack, 1 forced fumble and 1 fumble recovery.
NFL draft analyst Lance Zierlein compared Smith to 2-time Pro Bowler Dontari Poe in his pre-draft evaluation. Zierlein also had Smith pegged as a player who some team would likely draft too early.
“Smith’s size and testing could give his draft slotting some juice but he’s more of a Day 2 talent with exciting upside than a plug-and-play starter,” Zierlein wrote.
Numbers Not What You Want From Elite Defensive Tackle
The Cowboys thought enough of Smith to make him the first defensive tackle they’ve taken in the first round since they selected 3-time Super Bowl champion Russell Maryland with the No. 1 overall pick in the 1991 NFL draft.
Smith, who has 2 seasons left on a 4-year, $13.2 million contract, only had 13 tackles and 1.0 sack as a rookie in 17 games with 3 starts, then had 41 tackles, 1.0 sack and 4 TFL in 2024 as he started all 17 games. In 2 seasons, Smith only has 3 QB hits, no forced fumbles and no fumble recoveries.
In short, he’s not really doing anything an NFL team wants an elite defensive tackle to do.
The Cowboys may have sent Smith a message about his performance in the 2025 NFL draft, where they selected 2 defensive tackles in the seventh round with UCLA’s Jay Toia and Maryland’s Tommy Akingbesote.
Tony Adame covers the NFL for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Washington Commanders and Denver Broncos. A veteran sports writer and editor since 2004, his work has been featured at Stadium Talk, Yardbarker, NW Florida Daily News and Pensacola News Journal. More about Tony Adame
