Cowboys Predicted to Trade Draft Bust Before Cut-Down Day
Sure, Cowboys defensive lineman Mazi Smith has not exactly worked out in his two seasons in Dallas. After a season of getting his bearings together in 2023, when he was the No. 26 overall pick by the Cowboys, Smith was the starter for all 17 games in 2024. And the results were about as bad as they could be.
Smith registered a Pro Football Focus grade of 34.8 last year, which wads 117th out of 118 interior defensive lineman. That’s not a promising showing for a player the Cowboys badly needed to improve.
During this year’s training camp, Smith has not quite showered himself in glory, either. Dallas can be decidedly stubborn as an organization, but Smith might just have been bad enough to warrant a trade ahead of cut-down day–because there’s a chance the Cowboys will just waive him altogether and come away with nothing.
Mazi Smith to Seahawks?
That’s the view from ESPN’s Bill Barnwell, who sees Smith as a top trade candidate on Tuesday, because otherwise, the Cowboys won’t keep him on the 53-man roster.
Don’t get too excited, Cowboys fans–the return for Smith, according to Barnwell, would be a swap of fifth and sixth-round picks with the Seahawks.
He writes: “The Cowboys used a Round 1 pick on Smith in 2023 in the hopes the nose tackle would be a valuable player in their run defense, but he has been a major disappointment. Dallas has played him regularly in the preseason, which hasn’t been the case for its other prominent defensive tackles. There’s not really a direct replacement for Smith on the active roster, but if the Cowboys don’t think he will be used regularly, they might prefer to save the $4.5 million remaining on his deal and move on.”
Cowboys Must Make Cuts on Tuesday
The Cowboys and all NFL teams will have until August 26–that’s Tuesday– at 4 p.m. ET to get their rosters down to 53 players. While Dallas has some difficult decisions to make, the bulk of the players who will be cut are expecting it, and are just hoping to get picked up elsewhere or land on the practice squad.
But the Cowboys’ big decisions will be whether to keep quarterback Joe Milton or Will Grier, and whether running back Miles Sanders, receiver Jalen Brooks and/or Smith sticks with the final roster. If those players stay, obviously, someone else must go.
Cowboys Bust Weighs in on Mazi Smith
Interestingly, one of the Cowboys’ bigger busts in recent years–2017 first-rounder Taco Charlton–sent a message on social media imploring fans not to compare his situation to that of Smith.
“Stop comparing my situation to bros! He still got plenty of time to turn it around! I was released early because a coach didn’t like my personality and I made a stupid tweet,” Charlton wrote on X. “They goin give him time.”
Maybe they will. Or, maybe, they’ll trade him.
