Cowboys' Mazi Smith dubbed 'biggest draft miss' of 2023 rookie class
On the latest "A to Z Sports Film Room" episode, NFL draft analysts Destin Adams and James Foster broke down how 2023 NFL Draft picks from No. 17 to No. 32 performed in Year 1. The Dallas Cowboys fell in that range as they turned to Michigan defensive tackle Mazi Smith with the 26th overall […]
On the latest "A to Z Sports Film Room" episode, NFL draft analysts Destin Adams and James Foster broke down how 2023 NFL Draft picks from No. 17 to No. 32 performed in Year 1.
The Dallas Cowboys fell in that range as they turned to Michigan defensive tackle Mazi Smith with the 26th overall pick last year.
And according to Foster and Adams, Smith's rookie year gets a disappointing D-.
Smith's Rookie Year Doesn't Come With Many Positives
"There's not a whole lot of positives that you can take away from his rookie season and at this point, development isn't linear he could have a second-year jump," James Foster said. But at this point, I think Mazi Smith is my biggest draft miss from that rookie class."
Smith played in all 17 games as a rookie and made three starts. He saw action on a total of 28 percent of the team’s defensive snaps, finishing with an underwhelming 13 tackles and one sack.
Foster believes that Smith struggled in Year 1 because of his drastic weight loss ahead of the draft.
"…I think part of it is he lost weight," Foster explained. "He dropped 15 or 20 pounds and goes from this nose tackle that's really solid at the point of attack holding up against double teams to somebody that just can't hold his spot at all. I mean, turn on any Mazi Smith game and there's at least one or two pancakes on that tape and he's usually playing like 10 snaps. So, it's bad.
"It's holding up one-on-one. Holding up against double teams. But also, the anticipation of combo blocks. He has a major issue where he'll engage with the first block then that second block in the combo comes and he's just not expecting it. Gets uprooted, and put on the ground. That was actually one of the main areas that you saw him struggle in college and that has translated to the NFL."
While Smith didn't live up to the run stuffer hype, Foster isn't chalking his rookie performance up altogether as he saw some potential in him as a pass rusher.
"I do think he showed some juice as a pass rusher," Forster said. "He had some nice reps. Especially at his lower weight, he is pretty explosive and twitchy. If he can become a playable run defender, I do still think there's some pass-rushing upside with him but yeah, I think the Cowboys might be in the market for a nose tackle."
