In 2023, the Cowboys made Mazi Smith their first-round draft choice. Their hope was that by adding him to the mix, their shaky run defense would be shored up. Smith carries close to 315 pounds on the team’s roster. He remains a big, powerful dude, a run stuffer in college at the University of Michigan where he tipped the scales around 323 pounds. Even in his rookie season he was under 300 pounds toward the end of the year. This unexpected weight loss raised fears about his viability in the defensive front seven.
Smith’s path to becoming the Cowboys’ most important player hasn’t come with its fair share of pitfalls. Last season, he started each and every game but struggled to consistently make an impact. This planting of doubt among fans and analysts would naturally raise concerns about Boomer’s ability to come in and help polish a defense that gave up more than 140 rushing yards in eight games last fall. His gameplay is a reflection of the changes he implemented when playing for defensive coordinator Dan Quinn. He’s constantly trying to figure out the ideal amount of weight vs. performance.
Despite these ups and downs, Smith remains optimistic about his role, stating, “Football is football is football. And the nose [tackle] plays one way. You’ve got to be the strongest person on the field at any given moment.” This way of thinking has made him hell bent on being the intimidating competitor that he is down in the trenches.
The Cowboys’ defensive approach has changed dramatically from pipeline-creator Rod Marinelli to his eventual successors Mike Nolan and Dan Quinn. Last year, both under Mike Zimmer and the influence of defensive coordinator Ed Donatell, the idea was to have Smith bulk up to help him fulfill that role. Now, with new defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus at the helm, the focus shifts towards not just physical size but rebuilding confidence within the group. Eberflus’s track record suggests he’s not a guy who relies solely on size. For the last one dozen years, his defensive units have traditionally ranked in the top 10 eight times, usually with tackles weighing under 300 pounds.
It’s something Eberflus has repeatedly said is the most important aspect of a good run defense — smothering, swarming teamwork. He remarked, “You’ve got to have guys that hold up their guys. A guy that’s 280 and a guy that’s 320 can hold up the game the same. They can get blown back the same. It just depends on pad level, violence and their technique.” His style of play would indicate that discipline and technique trump heavy size when it comes to elite defensive play.
It’ll be an uphill climb for the Cowboys going forward. True, four of their opponents in the 2025 season had run games that ranked in the top half of the league last year. This background puts even more onus on Smith and his fellow defenders to create an organized defensive scheme on the fly.
Jack Sanborn, one of Smith’s teammates, echoed that sentiment and said you need to have a great collective defensive effort for an elite run defense. He stated, “Doing your job is No. 1. Obviously physical play, getting hats to the ball and swarming the ball carrier… it’s going to take everybody.” His takeaways really drive home how important it is on defense that every single player does their job. That illuminates teamwork as a key ingredient.
The previous season’s statistics reveal that while Smith had some positive moments, they were not enough to make a significant difference in a defense that struggled against strong rushing offenses. Eberflus acknowledged this reality when he noted, “We gave up 2-point-something in the first half, run-defense-wise [actually 3.1 yards per carry], and in the second half we just kinda didn’t tackle very well.” This indicates that making progress will take more than just the will of each person we appoint, but rather a reckoning of joint responsibility.
Smith is deliberate about how he shapes his training and conditioning routine. He is always trying new approaches to see what he learns and what works the best for him. “I’ve been about 305 the last few seasons. Right now I’m about 310, 315,” he explained. It’s just about whatever weight that’s comfortable. You want to be powerful. You want to be dense. You need the weight distributed to the right places. You want to have all the weight in the right spots. His ability to adapt is a big reason why he has such an acute awareness of how physical changes affect their performance on the field.
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