{"id":80901,"date":"2025-07-16T14:56:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T18:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/?p=80901"},"modified":"2025-07-16T14:56:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T18:56:13","slug":"is-mazi-smith-a-bad-fit-for-the-cowboys-new-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/is-mazi-smith-a-bad-fit-for-the-cowboys-new-defense\/80901\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Mazi Smith a bad fit for the Cowboys\u2019 new defense?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Dallas Cowboys may not be using one of their young defensive players in a way that shows off his true potential.<\/p>\n

Mazi Smith, a defensive tackle taken in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft, has struggled to shine in the Cowboys\u2019 current system. Former Cowboys coach Greg Ellis recently shared that Smith has a kind of \u201csuperhero ability,\u201d but the way the team plays defense might not be the best match for his style.<\/p>\n

Ellis explained that the Cowboys\u2019 defensive strategy has changed over the past couple of years. In the past, players were expected to attack straight up the field. That\u2019s not really Smith\u2019s strength. Last season, he improved and started to show flashes of why Dallas drafted him, boosting his tackle total from 13 in his rookie season to 41 in year two.<\/p>\n

Now, under new defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus, the team is going back to that same aggressive, up-the-field approach. Ellis is worried that if they don\u2019t adjust the scheme to match Smith\u2019s strengths, his talent could be wasted, and in that case, the team might need to consider trading him.<\/p>\n

For now, the Cowboys seem likely to give Smith a shot in the new system before making any decisions. But if things don\u2019t work out, he could become a valuable trade piece for a team that better suits his playing style.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Dallas Cowboys may not be using one of their young defensive players in a way that shows off his\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":294,"featured_media":80902,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[19778,30756],"class_list":["post-80901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-dallas-cowboys","tag-mazi-smith"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/294"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}