Mazi Smith Playing Time

[Coogiguy03]

I think everyone is excited to see this young man get on the field and make this defense great. With that said, we have depth on the d-line, and the cowboys often like to rotate guys in. Do you feeling Smith will play a lot, or he'll be in a rotation as usual. Would his draft status have any impact on this, please give your thoughts...

 

[Tangle_Foot]

Playing nose tackle in NFL is a tough job, he will no doubt rotate with Haskins, but it will be talent not draft status that will earn him a higher snap count.

 

[jazzcat22]

Right around 6 weeks before TC opens. Then we get to see them in shorts and shells for 3 practices before the pads are allowed come on.

Camp NFL Cupcake for all teams. So about 7 weeks before we get to any real info on how he looks going up against out OL.

 

[thunderpimp91]

I think it pretty heavily comes down to can he rush the passer? If he is a true 1T rotating with Hankins I can't see him getting more than 10-20 snaps per game...unless Hankins gets hurt thus no rotation.

Last year Hankins had snap counts of 12, 33, 25, 18, 29, 10, 25, and 35 plays. It's just a very limited role. For comparison OSA averaged about 42 snaps per game, so if Mazi can get after the QB well enough to stay on the field for 2nd & long and 3rd down situations it really opens up so much more and now 20 snaps in a game is likely his floor instead of his ceiling most weeks.

 

[AsthmaField]

Rotation, for sure. He will be used situationally… which is the right thing to do.

He played almost 50 snaps per game in college. That is way too much for a big guy… particularly one who will be taking on double teams much of the time.

The amount of exertion put out by big guys like that is crazy. He will need frequent breaks. As it should be.

I won’t hazard a guess as to how many snaps he will play, but Quinn will use him judiciously. He will probably play some 3T on some run downs, so that will likely up his snaps a bit.

 

[OmerV]

I think everyone is excited to see this young man get on the field and make this defense great. With that said, we have depth on the d-line, and the cowboys often like to rotate guys in. Do you feeling Smith will play a lot, or he'll be in a rotation as usual. Would his draft status have any impact on this, please give your thoughts...

I would expect some rotation, but at this point its much to speculate with any confidence. Until we see rookies compete at the NFL level they could still be anywhere from a bust to star, or anything in between.

 

[beware_d-ware]

I'm expecting a pretty heavy workload. He'll get at least 400 snaps.

I don't know if Mazi will be any good as a rook, but he's a key cog in this scheme. Quinn's amoeba fronts really depend on having a rock at NT. He wants to play matchup games up and down the line with his pass rushers, but you can't do it at the expense of gap integrity. Not for long anyway, before offenses figure it out.

The Cowboys pass rush was enormously successful in the first half of last season, but they got gashed against the run. After Halloween, they went to playing more kind of traditional 1-gap alignments, and their run defense improved, but you didn't seeing the weird overload stuff any more.

 

[Einstein]

My guess is about 55-60% of the DT snaps on rotation.

 

[CowboyRoy]

I think everyone is excited to see this young man get on the field and make this defense great. With that said, we have depth on the d-line, and the cowboys often like to rotate guys in. Do you feeling Smith will play a lot, or he'll be in a rotation as usual. Would his draft status have any impact on this, please give your thoughts...

70% of the plays at midseason.

 

[CowboyRoy]

think it pretty heavily comes down to can he rush the passer? If he is a true 1T rotating with Hankins I can't see him getting more than 10-20 snaps per game...unless Hankins gets hurt thus no rotation.

Last year Hankins had snap counts of 12, 33, 25, 18, 29, 10, 25, and 35 plays. It's just a very limited role. For comparison OSA averaged about 42 snaps per game, so if Mazi can get after the QB well enough to stay on the field for 2nd & long and 3rd down situations it really opens up so much more and now 20 snaps in a game is likely his floor instead of his ceiling most weeks.

He can get to the QB and he is better than Hankins. Hankins will be the one spelling Mazi. By midseason the latest.

 

[Yoshimitsu]

I think they are going to have him playing 1 and 3 tech. Possibly 0 as well.

 

[CouchCoach]

Optimum situation is in a rotational role, if they can do that. Have your best D guys in the 4th Q, fresh and sassy.

Just like that would have been for Ware and Ratliff. They could not rotate these guys out without it having a negative effect.

I think they've done as good a job as they can on the DL depth with this roster.

 

[speedkilz88]

Mazi will most likely get the most snaps with Osi being the next and Hankins probably will get the third most snaps.

 

[gimmesix]

I think everyone is excited to see this young man get on the field and make this defense great. With that said, we have depth on the d-line, and the cowboys often like to rotate guys in. Do you feeling Smith will play a lot, or he'll be in a rotation as usual. Would his draft status have any impact on this, please give your thoughts...

I doubt starting off that he'll be in in passing situations, at least not until he shows something as a pass rusher. So, first downs for sure. Second, if we give up 4 or more yards on first down. Short yardage and goal line. Hankins played on around 35 percent of the snaps last year after he joined us, and I would think Mazi's numbers would be similar. If he shows the ability to be disruptive against the pass, it could increase to around 60 percent.

 

[CWR]

I think everyone is excited to see this young man get on the field and make this defense great. With that said, we have depth on the d-line, and the cowboys often like to rotate guys in. Do you feeling Smith will play a lot, or he'll be in a rotation as usual. Would his draft status have any impact on this, please give your thoughts...

He will be in a lot. He wasn't drafted to only be a run stopper. I expect he starts and gets a lot of time.

 

[CWR]

I'm expecting a pretty heavy workload. He'll get at least 400 snaps.

I don't know if Mazi will be any good as a rook, but he's a key cog in this scheme. Quinn's amoeba fronts really depend on having a rock at NT. He wants to play matchup games up and down the line with his pass rushers, but you can't do it at the expense of gap integrity. Not for long anyway, before offenses figure it out.

The Cowboys pass rush was enormously successful in the first half of last season, but they got gashed against the run. After Halloween, they went to playing more kind of traditional 1-gap alignments, and their run defense improved, but you didn't seeing the weird overload stuff any more.

Strong post, thanks for sharing your insight. It's nice to read a take and be educated not just here polar arguments and opinions.

I agree the defense made a clear adjustment to stop the bleeding and it was helpful, but came at a cost. Pass rush wasn't the same afterwards.

 

[shabazz]

Playing nose tackle in NFL is a tough job, he will no doubt rotate with Haskins, but it will be talent not draft status that will earn him a higher snap count.

Oh. no doubt. Many ballers at the DT position had growing pains the first couple seasons but their teams brought them along patiently and it paid dividends……we just hope to see certain positive indicators along the way.

Humility, work ethic and maturity will be his best friends

 

[charron]

Physically he will be fine but mentally is the question. When teams adjust to what he can do and likes to do how does he respond? Does he change up his techniques or use the same ones repeatedly?

 

[shabazz]

Physically he will be fine but mentally is the question. When teams adjust to what he can do and likes to do how does he respond? Does he change up his techniques or use the same ones repeatedly?

Coaches and players mentoring him will add those intangibles. He just has to be hungry enough and let experience come to him. He‘ll probably have good games followed by bad ones where an OLineman will school him.

 

[CapnB]

Optimum situation is in a rotational role, if they can do that. Have your best D guys in the 4th Q, fresh and sassy.

Just like that would have been for Ware and Ratliff. They could not rotate these guys out without it having a negative effect.

I think they've done as good a job as they can on the DL depth with this roster.

Fresh and sassy, just how we like'em !!