VaqueroTD
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I’ve been reading a lot about Mazi lately and wanted to clear up a few things.
- Mazi was drafted to be a nose. Cowboys said he was a first year starter and they expected him to quickly take snaps away from the older Hankins.
- EVERY scout profile pointed out that this guy was slow off the ball AND poor leverage! HUGE. RED. FLAG, Absolutely stops anyone in the NFL from being successful if not improved so I’m not sure why the Cowboys didn’t realize he was a project? He was #13 on the draft board!
- In TC, it became obvious he wasn’t going to take any of Hankins’s playing time, the team started playing him as a three tech… remember that? We all thought that Dan Quinn was just trying to add some wrinkles for the rookie to get him more time, but I think it was because he realized he wasn’t going to succeed as a nose. I just think they gave up already on him and maybe they thought Hankins was going to be that good and not hurt? BTW, these are early bust alerts, sort of reminds me of things we saw with Bobby Carpenter early on. Team desperately trying to get anything out of their first round pick.
- The team told him to lose weight. Why do we know? Because the players get fined if they don’t meet weight and we would’ve heard about it. A lot! He lost a ton!
- I think where a lot of the confusion started was fans did not realize he was already getting a lot of snaps as a three tech, saying it takes time for a nose to develop…. someone here posted a thread that showed the numbers mid-season (some premium stat sites provide that info) but he was barely played as a true nose until Hankins went down because they had no choice.
So here we are, the team hopes that if he gains his weight back, he will be reborn, but it still does nothing to fix his deficiencies. I would be interested to hear from you coaches, if that can be fixed at the pro level. With Zimmer the crafty experienced defensive coordinator, if anyone can do it, he can. Zimm can also ride his butt if there are some motivation issues because sometimes I wonder. But going back to the title, I just think the Cowboys got caught up on Mazi’s physical WOW factor. He sort of looks like Tyron Smith, just a natural gorilla giant who carries his weight well…. and gives off the Larry Allen vibes of upper body strength. But unfortunately, that’s not all it takes to succeed in the NFL. Here is hoping he works out, but I would not start investing in MazI futures anytime soon. I think the Cowboys are setting themselves and our linebackers up for failure if they don’t find at least a younger Hankins type somewhere before the draft.
- Mazi was drafted to be a nose. Cowboys said he was a first year starter and they expected him to quickly take snaps away from the older Hankins.
- EVERY scout profile pointed out that this guy was slow off the ball AND poor leverage! HUGE. RED. FLAG, Absolutely stops anyone in the NFL from being successful if not improved so I’m not sure why the Cowboys didn’t realize he was a project? He was #13 on the draft board!
- In TC, it became obvious he wasn’t going to take any of Hankins’s playing time, the team started playing him as a three tech… remember that? We all thought that Dan Quinn was just trying to add some wrinkles for the rookie to get him more time, but I think it was because he realized he wasn’t going to succeed as a nose. I just think they gave up already on him and maybe they thought Hankins was going to be that good and not hurt? BTW, these are early bust alerts, sort of reminds me of things we saw with Bobby Carpenter early on. Team desperately trying to get anything out of their first round pick.
- The team told him to lose weight. Why do we know? Because the players get fined if they don’t meet weight and we would’ve heard about it. A lot! He lost a ton!
- I think where a lot of the confusion started was fans did not realize he was already getting a lot of snaps as a three tech, saying it takes time for a nose to develop…. someone here posted a thread that showed the numbers mid-season (some premium stat sites provide that info) but he was barely played as a true nose until Hankins went down because they had no choice.
So here we are, the team hopes that if he gains his weight back, he will be reborn, but it still does nothing to fix his deficiencies. I would be interested to hear from you coaches, if that can be fixed at the pro level. With Zimmer the crafty experienced defensive coordinator, if anyone can do it, he can. Zimm can also ride his butt if there are some motivation issues because sometimes I wonder. But going back to the title, I just think the Cowboys got caught up on Mazi’s physical WOW factor. He sort of looks like Tyron Smith, just a natural gorilla giant who carries his weight well…. and gives off the Larry Allen vibes of upper body strength. But unfortunately, that’s not all it takes to succeed in the NFL. Here is hoping he works out, but I would not start investing in MazI futures anytime soon. I think the Cowboys are setting themselves and our linebackers up for failure if they don’t find at least a younger Hankins type somewhere before the draft.
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