Cowboys fixing big Mazi Smith mistake from 2023 as Mike Zimmer arrives

[Big_D]

On the list of things to criticize the cowboys over, drafting is a long way down the list. The cowboys have drafted well, that’s not just a fan opinion that a widely held opinion amongst many talking heads and league people according to most nfl professionals and journalists.

All teams make a lot of “poor decisions “ in the draft. The draft is a complete crap shoot but it’s one of the things the cowboys for the most part due well and compare favorably to most teams. Fans just wanna moan to moan and that’s fine but do it about the roughly ten things that come up before drafting with this franchise.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id...hich-teams-gotten-best-value-2012-rank-all-32

https://www.si.com/nfl/2023/04/14/nfl-draft-ranking-best-and-worst-teams-at-picking-players

https://www.runyourpool.com/articles/2023/04/27/5-best-nfl-draft-teams-of-the-last-5-years/

These are a handful of articles. They aren’t perfect and no team is in the draft but it’s a real strength

The goal is to build a ‘team’ capable of winning postseason football games, not individual after season accomplishments. They mean nothing at all. Look at the amount of holes on this team right now. Those pro bowlers or all pros are being wasted at a record pace like Tyron Smith and soon to be Zach Martin.

One of the best drafting teams can’t win playoff games but that’s not the measurement? Why on earth would you draft Schoonmaker in RD2 when you have numerous holes? Thats just one example in a sea of them. It’s actually a long list of terrible decisions and gambles that offset the good ones. Makes no sense at all what they’ve done in the 2nd. Plus you have to factor in how this team goes above and beyond to keep ‘their guys’. Of course they’re averaging more playing time because of it. Jaylon Smith and his pro bowl nod were a joke. Even a new contract afterwards! lol Just another example and that one was huge! What team out there is going to burn a high 2nd for a guy who might never play a down? Then about a full decade of ignoring DT. The list goes on and on. You can defend it all you want. You have to be smart enough to fill the holes and history has proven that they simply are not and they don’t win in January because of that.

 

[CowboysLakerBamaFan]

Just get him to balloon up to 650lbs. It's what Mazi wants.

Then just put him at 0 tech, have him lay down on the field right in front of the center, an immovable gelatinous blob of blubber, and simply make teams run left or right around his spread out fat.

It would take them too long to climb over Mount Mazi, so make them circumnavigate Mount Mazi.

That's the best he can offer: Granted, a refrigerator would serve the same purpose, but I'm just training to make lemonade out of useless blubbery lemons here.

 

[Coogiguy03]

“Never been a champion at the nfl level”….except being a coach for super bowl 30 and winning. And you respond with”truth” lol

yeah because it's a free country and I can say and feel how I want to feel within the confines of this great establishment called the blog lounge!!

 

[LACowboysFan1]

The idea that Mazi wasn't productive due solely to losing weight seems logical, but weight alone isn't what makes a defensive lineman good. Aaron Donald doesn't get pushed around on the line and he's "only" 285 lbs. Jay Ratliff was a decent enough NT and he was like 305.

Strength (which admittedly Mazi might have lost some with the weight loss, but probably not much), quickness, hand placement, play recognition, footwork, leverage, etc. are all just as important. So "let Mazi put the weight back on and he'll be a beast at NT" might not be the sole answer.

And there are two other things to consider, one, Mazi was on a top college team, was surrounded by top players, how much of his success was due to his being single teamed/playing against lesser players, and two, no matter how strong, if the offensive lineman gets the jump on Mazi, he will get pushed back, momentum is hard to stop.

So, of course I'm giving Mazi the chance to shine, not every player responds quickly to the jump from college to the NFL, but there's far more to it than just weighing a lot....

 

[Cowfan75Lives]

Yeah, yeah, now Mazi will be just fine. Best shape of his life. No need to sign FAs, Zimmer is a tough guy, we are all in, yadda yadda yadda. All tbe media has to do now is tell you how good our trash smells.

 

[1942willys]

Yeah this is the first time I've seen his weight loss "requested."

Still, the team can NOT be innocent here. They knew he was dropping weight and didn't change course. That's not an oversight anyone makes at this level.

The teams give players a weight they are supposed to maintain; so this claim he did it on his own is BS.

 

[CTcowboy203]

The goal is to build a ‘team’ capable of winning postseason football games, not individual after season accomplishments. They mean nothing at all. Look at the amount of holes on this team right now. Those pro bowlers or all pros are being wasted at a record pace like Tyron Smith and soon to be Zach Martin.

One of the best drafting teams can’t win playoff games but that’s not the measurement? Why on earth would you draft Schoonmaker in RD2 when you have numerous holes? Thats just one example in a sea of them. It’s actually a long list of terrible decisions and gambles that offset the good ones. Makes no sense at all what they’ve done in the 2nd. Plus you have to factor in how this team goes above and beyond to keep ‘their guys’. Of course they’re averaging more playing time because of it. Jaylon Smith and his pro bowl nod were a joke. Even a new contract afterwards! lol Just another example and that one was huge! What team out there is going to burn a high 2nd for a guy who might never play a down? Then about a full decade of ignoring DT. The list goes on and on. You can defend it all you want. You have to be smart enough to fill the holes and history has proven that they simply are not and they don’t win in January because of that.

the team collectively hasn’t achieved post season success sure, and Of course team success is measured on playoff wins.that doesn’t mean the cowboys are bad at drafting, there’s several layers to those post season mishaps and many stem from other issues in the organization that aren’t draft mishaps like sitting out free agency entirely or choosing the wrong allocation on who to sign and let walk etc.

Again, your argument is basically is showing mistakes the team made in the draft, teams always make mistakes in the draft. If a team hits on like 35% of their draft picks- they build a statue for the guy outside the stadium. You can’t find perfection in an imperfect situation. All those pro bowlers and all pros don’t matter so you’d rather them not draft those caliber of player?

I’m not the only one defending it, numerous people smarter then myself and you side with my opinion on this. the draft is one area the cowboys do well, doesn’t mean they bat .1000 as no team does but they are better than most and in particular they’ve been clearly better the last decade or so.

 

[Typhus]

Cowboys fixing massive Mazi Smith mistake from 2023 as Mike Zimmer arrives​

Bryan Broaddus of 105.3 The Fan noted on "The Draft Show" podcast that Dallas is having Smith put weight back on to convert back to a true nose tackle. That's the position Smith was drafted to play, which made the weight loss request downright impossible to comprehend.



That is music to Cowboys fans' ears. Zimmer's arrival seems to already be paying dividends for Smith's career. As an interior defensive lineman, the former Wolverine is a much better fit in Zimmer's scheme relative to Dan Quinn's.

Toward the end of the 2023 season, Smith looked smaller than most of Dallas' defensive linemen, including their edge rushers. It was shocking to the eye considering Smith was drafted at 327 pounds. He went from one of the strongest players in the draft to a player who routinely got pushed off the ball and couldn't handle double teams.

See link for Mazzi Smith 800 lb lift weight:

Lets bounce Mazi back up another 40 lbs after making him trim it just in his rookie season, nothing should go wrong with this rebuild.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

I’m so confused who told him to lose weight?

 

[Hadenough]

Well I knew there would be some false hope Jerry would get out there. Mazi is a bust and fixing him is about like fixing Dak. They are who they are and nothing more.

 

[lkelly]

They're just fattening him up so that he's ready for McCarthy's Thanksgiving table.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

Another brilliant DQ idea… smh

we take safties and make them LBs, we take DTs and make them LBs. Quinn was fasicnated with LBs

 

[Creeper]

Why did they draft Mazi Smith only to ask him to become something he isn't? Why not just draft a 280lb DT?

Also, are we sure it was Quinn who asked Mazi to lose weight?

For all you Quinn fans, let me ask, was it really Quinn who improved this defense from what it was, or was it the arrival of Micah Parsons?

 

[Creeper]

Cowboys fixing massive Mazi Smith mistake from 2023 as Mike Zimmer arrives​

Bryan Broaddus of 105.3 The Fan noted on "The Draft Show" podcast that Dallas is having Smith put weight back on to convert back to a true nose tackle. That's the position Smith was drafted to play, which made the weight loss request downright impossible to comprehend.



That is music to Cowboys fans' ears. Zimmer's arrival seems to already be paying dividends for Smith's career. As an interior defensive lineman, the former Wolverine is a much better fit in Zimmer's scheme relative to Dan Quinn's.

Toward the end of the 2023 season, Smith looked smaller than most of Dallas' defensive linemen, including their edge rushers. It was shocking to the eye considering Smith was drafted at 327 pounds. He went from one of the strongest players in the draft to a player who routinely got pushed off the ball and couldn't handle double teams.

See link for Mazzi Smith 800 lb lift weight:

I believe strength is an important characteristic of interior linemen on both sides of the ball, but there is a lot more to being a good player than just being strong. There are top weight room guys all over the league who never make all-pro because. Mazi's strength will help him, but he needs to get a quicker start on the snap and he needs to learn to use his strength by adding leverage.

 

[CowboyChris]

I haven't given up on Mazi, he is what we thought he was supposed to be...a NT, Quinn tried to make him a 3T, that experiment so far has failed, if coached right he can still be a solid contributor.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

I can't believe people are blaming Mazi's terrible season on the team or Quinn.

One, we don't know that the team wanted him to lose weight.

And two, he never showed a thing in camp even before he lost the weight.

 

[blueblood70]

Nobody knows for sure if Mazi Smith will be able to recover from his less than positive production in 2023. It surely remains to be seen if a 2024 return to his former weight helps him to make up for last year's problems. Gotta say, I feel sorry for the bad situation he was put into last year. DQ blew it.

You are correct, nobody knows...

anybody calling this guy a bust is ridiculous, we know that Jordan Davis who is a 13th overall pick went way ahead of mazi did not have a good rookie year, pretty much a ghost as well on stat sheet and he wasn't asked to lose weight, however amount of weight that is still to be determined because I don't believe it was as much as people said....

however, I believe he can get back on track Jordan Davis had a much better second season than he did his rookie year, this is just the life of a nose tackle and again not one that had some idiotic defensive coordinator try to make the guy into something he wasn't...

 

[Adreme]

I don't need to act its pretty much out there for all to see his draft advice is CRAP!
On any other team, he would have been long gone years ago!
Another GLORIFIED YES MAN of Jerry's...........just kissing that @@@ and collecting those checks!

All can see the Cowboys are measurably one of the best drafting teams of the past 15 years. Pick your metric and the Cowboys rank among the best. Your metric can be longevity, ie how long of a career your picks have, number of players who made pro bowl, number of players who made an all pro, it does not matter whichever metric you pick because the Cowboys will rank among the best in the league.

 

[InPhiltraitor]

The goal is to build a ‘team’ capable of winning postseason football games, not individual after season accomplishments. They mean nothing at all. Look at the amount of holes on this team right now. Those pro bowlers or all pros are being wasted at a record pace like Tyron Smith and soon to be Zach Martin.

One of the best drafting teams can’t win playoff games but that’s not the measurement? Why on earth would you draft Schoonmaker in RD2 when you have numerous holes? Thats just one example in a sea of them. It’s actually a long list of terrible decisions and gambles that offset the good ones. Makes no sense at all what they’ve done in the 2nd. Plus you have to factor in how this team goes above and beyond to keep ‘their guys’. Of course they’re averaging more playing time because of it. Jaylon Smith and his pro bowl nod were a joke. Even a new contract afterwards! lol Just another example and that one was huge! What team out there is going to burn a high 2nd for a guy who might never play a down? Then about a full decade of ignoring DT. The list goes on and on. You can defend it all you want. You have to be smart enough to fill the holes and history has proven that they simply are not and they don’t win in January because of that.

Post season failures based on the roster can be directly attributed the Jones’ hesitancy to supplement through free agency and their reluctance to involve persons capable of assisting with cap money matters.

Granted, the 2023 season is currently in the draft stinker column but in general the team does a very good job.

There’s a Blogging the Boys article from 2017 (maybe I’ll link it later) that compared the Cowboys first round selections for a seven year span against gurus Mel Kiper and Todd McShay. Kiper and McShay lost in and landslide. Only one pick between the two of them stood out and it was McShay’s 2011 pick of JJ Watt but we can’t complain as we drafted Tyron Smith.

Look to the positive. For everything this outfit does wrong, they rarely have consecutive bad draft classes. This year will be good.

 

[KJJ]

The big mistake was drafting him.