Are the Cowboys setting up this player to fail in 2025?

by Aug 2, 2025

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:

https://twitter.com/NickHarrisFWST/status/1949922782017704249

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.

Shades Of Taco

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.

Are the Cowboys setting up this player to fail in 2025? - Jay Toia, Mazi Smith, Taco Charlton

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.

It Isn’t All On Smith

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.

Football player in navy and white gear and helmet, numbered 58, stands on the field with a focused expression.

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.

Richard Paolinelli

Richard Paolinelli

Richard Paolinelli is a sports journalist and author. In addition to his work at InsideTheStar.com, he has a Substack -- Dispatches From A SciFi Scribe – where he discusses numerous topics, including sports in general. He started his newspaper career in 1991 with the Gallup (NM) Independent before going to the Modesto (CA) Bee, Gustine (CA) Press-Standard, and Turlock (CA) Journal -- where he won the 2001 Best Sports Story, in the annual California Newspaper Publishers Association’s Better Newspapers Contest. He then moved to the Merced (CA) Sun-Star, Tracy (CA) Press, Patch and finished his career in 2011 with the San Francisco (CA) Examiner. He has written two Non-Fiction sports books, 11 novels, and has over 30 published short stories.

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