On their way to a 7-10 season, missing the playoffs for the first time in four years, the Dallas Cowboys in 2024 were clearly an unfinished work.
As a result, the team’s head coach Mike McCarthy was let go after he failed to agree on a new contract with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones — who subsequently elevated offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer to the team’s top on-field job.
At age 51, “Schotty” has held a variety of coaching jobs in the NFL for 29 years but had never been elevated to a head coach’s position until Jones anointed him the man to lead the Cowboys’ hoped-for rebirth. The job is a daunting one. Dallas has won five Super Bowls since entering the NFL in 1960 — tied with the San Francisco 49ers for second-most all-time — but none since 1995.
In fact, “America’s Team” has not even made it as far as the NFC Championship game since then, a drought that will reach 30 years if they fail to advance at least that far in 2025.
One Pass Rusher Fell Well Short in 2024
Clearly, Schottenheimer and Jones — who essentially acts as the Cowboys’ general manager as well as owner and team president — have any number of issues to address, and areas of the roster that will need to be upgraded.
But based on last year’s results, the pass rush is not one of them.
Last season, the Cowboys placed third in the league in sacking the opposing quarterback, getting the job done 52 times. Dallas also ranked second in quarterback pressures with 180, and first in pressure rate, registering a “pressure” in 30.1 percent of all quarterback dropbacks.
Even with that level of pass rush efficiency, however, there was one member of the corps who was not pulling his weight.
That was 337-pound defensive tackle Mazi Smith, who contributed just one to the Dallas sack total, and was responsible for only 22 solo tackles By contrast, the league leader among defensive tackles, Jeffrey Simmons of the Tennessee Titans, compiled 41 solo tackles.
The Cowboys selected Smith out of Michigan, using their first round pick on the Michigan native, 26th overall, in 2023.
At the time, Smith seemed like an exciting pick, even as a first-rounder.
‘College Football Freak’ Proves ‘Haunting’ Disappointment
On his annual ranked list of “College Football Freaks,” meaning the most extraordinary physical specimens in each draft class, Athletic NFL analyst Bruce Feldman rated Smith No. 1 overall — ahead of Ohio State wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr., who was picked fourth overall the following year by the Arizona Cardinals.
“The six-foot-three, 337-pound senior has rare power and agility. So rare, in fact, it’s hard to find the right superlative to begin with,” wrote Feldman at the time. The Cowboys drafted Smith in 2023 and quickly inked him to a four-year rookie contract worth $13.3 million.
But Smith did not take long to disappoint, so much so that in a roundup last week by Bleacher Report writers of “the NFL draft picks that haunt them most,” they picked Smith as the Cowboys most “haunting” pick, after only two years in the league.
That would explain why another Cowboys scribe, Luke Norris of Fansided, named Smith last week as the Cowboy most likely to be traded by the team.
“Smith hasn’t even come close to living up to his draft status, recording just 54 total tackles and two sacks in his first two NFL seasons,” Norris wrote. “The Michigan alum started all 17 games for Dallas this past season and was classified as one of the league’s worst defensive linemen by the fine folks at PFF, earning a 34.8 overall grade to rank 207th of 219 players.”
Norris added that if they try to trade Smith, the Cowboys are unlikely to receive any significant value in return.
But, “one has to assume the Cowboys are looking for his replacement in the draft, and his poor performance is also likely why they signed several defensive linemen in free agency.”
Dallas owns the 12th, 44th and 76th picks in the first three rounds of this week’s NFL Draft.
