Mazi
Smith.
Mazi
Smith.
Michigan· 6'3"· 323 lb
"The strongest man in the draft played the least glamorous job on a national title defense, and the question was never whether he could hold ground but whether holding ground was worth a first-round pick."Pre-draft read
Smith was Michigan's nose tackle in an even front, over the center or on a shade, asked to absorb double teams so the linebackers behind him ran free. His calling card is raw functional power: wide base, heavy hands, an anchor that does not concede ground when two bodies arrive. He resets the line on down blocks and walks single blockers backward on straight bull rush.
The secondary trait is movement that does not match the body type. He redirects laterally on zone runs and tested as the strongest lineman of his cycle (34 bench reps). As a rusher he is far less refined, winning by push rather than plan. The signature is the contrast: a two-down space eater carrying the testing profile of a player who should have been more.
Even-front two-gap defense (base 4-3 / 3-4 nose)
Year 1: rotational early-down nose tackle in a two-gap front, 25-30 snaps a game to keep linebackers clean. Ceiling: full-time base nose on a top-five run defense with a designated sub-package replacement.
An attacking one-gap penetrating front that asks interior linemen to shoot gaps and produce pressure on passing downs — the exact structure Dallas ran when it drafted him.
Value peaks in a defense with heavy linebacker talent behind him and a dedicated three-technique pass rusher next to him.
Highlights: Michigan DL Mazi Smith
Conference-produced cut of his 2022 season showing the anchor against doubles and range down the line.
Mazi Smith 2022 Highlights | Michigan DL
Full senior-season reel with the run-defense snaps that made him a first-round name.
Mazi Smith - More Than a Run Stopper | 2023 NFL Draft Film Analysis
Pre-draft film study on whether the power translated into any pass rush upside.
Smith is a true nose tackle in the classic mold, a Grand Rapids product who arrived at Michigan as a highly recruited defensive tackle and grew into the immovable center of the best run defense in the Big Ten. He plays with a low pad level for his height, huge grip strength, and an anchor that made him a genuine problem for interior combos over two full seasons of starting football.
The production was never the sell. Across three years of recorded work he totalled 88 tackles, 6.0 tackles for loss and half a sack, and his final season as a Big Ten champion starter produced 48 tackles with 2.5 TFL. The value lived in what happened around him: Michigan's linebackers stacked All-America seasons because Smith held the point, and the tape shows constant double-team attention. The flags were obvious too, with essentially no pass rush plan and an off-field firearm charge in late 2022 that teams had to work through.
Boards had him as a first-round talent on traits and a second-round value on role, with most analysts projecting a late first to early second landing. Dallas took him at 26 to fix a run defense that had been gashed in the playoffs, betting that elite strength plus rare testing would grow into more than a two-down job.
- 01
Elite functional strength
Won the Combine bench (34 reps) and played to it, holding double teams without giving ground and resetting the line on down blocks.
- 02
True two-gap anchor
Sat over the center in an even front and let Michigan's linebackers run clean, the structural reason for a top-tier Big Ten run defense.
- 03
Rare athletic testing for the frame
Explosive lower half and lateral redirect at 330-plus pounds, giving him range down the line on zone runs.
- 04
Heavy, accurate hands
Lands first and controls the blocker's chest, allowing him to stack and shed rather than absorb and wait.
- 05
Proven at the highest level
Two seasons of starting football on a College Football Playoff defense against NFL-caliber interior linemen every week.
- 01
No pass rush plan
Wins by pushing the pocket rather than by counter or hand sequence, with half a sack across his entire recorded career.
- 02
Thin disruption profile
Six career tackles for loss is very light production for a first-round interior defender.
- 03
Pad level inconsistency
Plays high on some snaps and loses his leverage advantage against low-cut centers and quick combos.
- 04
Third-down role questions
Projects as a two-down player unless the rush develops, which limits snap share in a sub-package league.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- —s
- Vertical
- —in
- Broad jump
- —in
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- 34repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Michigan | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | Michigan | 14 | 37 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| 2022 | Michigan | 14 | 48 | 0.5 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Career | — | 33 | 88 | 0.5 | 0 | 4 | 1 |
Verified season by season on cfbstats (Michigan 2020-2022); season totals sum to the career line. Smith also appeared in 2019 as a reserve but no individual statistics are recorded for that year, so it is omitted rather than zero-filled. Categories cfbstats does not list for a given season are left blank instead of assumed zero.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Sturdy early-down two-gap nose who holds a run defense together without producing pressure.
The outcome if the raw power ever paired with a real rush plan: a nose tackle who moves the pocket and still eats doubles.
Rotational big body whose snaps shrink as the league plays lighter and faster on passing downs.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Mazi Smith played his rookie season as a defensive tackle for the Dallas Cowboys, contributing to their defensive line rotation.
Dallas asked him to start immediately and he was not ready. As a rookie in 2023 he played all 17 games but managed 13 combined tackles and was routinely moved off the ball, finishing as one of the lowest-graded interior defenders in the league. Year two was better: 41 combined tackles and a sack across 17 games in 2024, with more snaps that looked like the Michigan tape. Then 2025 went sideways. He played five games for Dallas with three combined tackles before being sent to New York in the deadline trade that brought Quinnen Williams to the Cowboys, then appeared in three games for the Jets. In April 2026 New York declined his fifth-year option.
In hindsight the miss was the role and the price, not the player. Smith is what the tape said: a strong, honest nose tackle who eats blocks and does not generate pressure. Michigan built a defense that hid that limitation; Dallas drafted him at 26 and asked him to be a difference maker. Teams that took Calijah Kancey and Keeanu Benton in the same range got interior players with a pass rush floor. A first-round interior pick has to threaten the quarterback on third down.
Data note: Verified season by season on cfbstats (Michigan 2020-2022); season totals sum to the career line. Smith also appeared in 2019 as a reserve but no individual statistics are recorded for that year, so it is omitted rather than zero-filled. Categories cfbstats does not list for a given season are left blank instead of assumed zero.