Cowboys top pick in 2023, Mazi Smith, looks to bounce back. ‘He has to be a force’

Dallas Cowboys nose tackle Mazi Smith was reluctant to talk with a Star-Telegram reporter after practice Saturday.

The 2023 first-round pick from Michigan has heard the noise and the criticism regarding his disappointing rookie season.

Smith was expected to become an immediate starter and make an instant impact on the team’s run defense. Yet, he inexplicably lost 30 pounds as a rookie, participated in just 28% of the defensive snaps and recorded just 13 tackles in three starts.

He logged just four snaps in the season-ending playoff loss to the Green Bay Packers when the Cowboys defense got run over and run through.

Smith knows what’s on the line and understands the expectations for Year 2, where he is again supposed to anchor the run defense at nose tackle.

What he doesn’t know is that he’s tasked with becoming a Cowboys unicorn of sorts.

No Cowboys player picked in the first round who did next to nothing as a rookie has come on to live to expectations as an impact player since defensive end Jeff Jeffcoat. He had no starts and just three tackles as rookie in 1983 and went on to start eight straight seasons before finishing a 15-year career with two Super Bowl titles and 102.5 sacks.

Forty-one years later, Smith would love to have that type of bounce-back story.

If he had his druthers, he would rather wait until he plays to talk to media. Smith would rather show than tell you.

But that’s not how the NFL works and he has contractual obligations to speak to the media.

So what’s his mindset heading into his second year?

“Stay on track. Keep growing. and don’t stop,” Smith said. “I understand what I’m seeing. I understand what I’m getting a lot more. know what to expect. Just growth.”

The switch in defensive coordinators with Dan Quinn taking the head coaching job in Washington and Mike Zimmer replacing him is expected to make a difference for Smith.

He will be asked to do more of what he did in college, taking on offensive lineman to hold the point of attack, rather than attack up field.

“I don’t think about that,” Smith said. “Just do my job, Listen to what they tell me. You know, follow my coaches direction. And do what I am supposed to do.”

Smith is making point to block out the naysayers and critics; they are not motivating factors.

“People always have something to say,” Smith said. “It don’t really bother me. It’s part of the game. When I played in Michigan they had something to say. Before I started playing at Michigan they had something to do. It ain’t really nothing. I am just focused on what I got to do, get better every day and not let nothing get me off that track..”

Smith’s weight has been a big inflection point.

He came in at 330 pounds last year. And dropped under 300 during the season.

The Cowboys have him listed 328. But he is reportedly closer to 311.

“Weight for me. It’s about strength. I will always have that,” Smith said. “ ...So of course I’m getting that up and getting that better but wherever I feel comfortable is where I am going to play.”

“I am pretty comfortable at this point. The only changes we’re going to make is what the coaches say. And I’ve been working I to put on some pounds. I’m bigger than I was last year.”

Why he lost the weight in the first place remains a mystery. The Cowboys said last season they didn’t tell him to lose weight.

“I mean, just part of the adjustment,” Smith said. “I lost a lot of weight my freshman year college, adjusting. So it was something that I seen before.”

So he did it on his own or was he instructed by the staff?

“Certain mixture. It ain’t for me to say,” Smith said. “We got a whole new staff and they are asking me to do something different.”

The Cowboys are counting on Smith to be the player he was drafted to be. He knows as much. But his focus is on proving it to himself first.

“OK, I don’t got nobody out there to prove it to, nobody thinking about me,” Smith said. “I don’t got nothing to say to folks. I am proving it to me.”

Does he already know it about himself?

“If I knew it wouldn’t say it. OK? I wouldn’t say it,” Smith. “It ain’t nobody else business. They’re gonna see the result.”

Jeffcoat-like results are what the Cowboys are hoping to see.

All-Pro edge rusher Micah Parsons was a big fan of the Cowboys decision to draft Smith to anchor the run defense. He praised the pick on social media and draft shows as a difference-making move to help the Cowboys get to the Super Bowl.

So Parsons is looking to see Smith live up to those expectations.

“It’s not what I think he can be, it’s what Mazi has to be,” Parson said. “When you get to this business, there is no more of a choice or a can, its either you will or you won’t. They usually try to find someone else to do it if you can’t. It’s what Mazi has to be. He has to be dominant. He has to be a force. He has to be that guy for us. That’s why they drafted him in the first round. You’re not getting drafted in the first round not to be a productive talent. Not to be on the sidelines. We drafted him to be in the game and that’s how much confidence you have to be. I don’t expect Mazi to do anything. It’s what Mazi has to do at this point.

“That’s why I’m in his corner, I’m rooting for him and hoping to get him better every day. Pushing his conditioning, pushing his limits because we need Mazi to be strong. We need Mazi to be that brick for us. He can be a dominant player for us it’s just a will and a mindset. That’s why we’re all here.”