CNOTE: Are The Cowboys About To Give Up On Mazi Smith? | GBAG Nation

CNOTE: Are The Cowboys About To Give Up On Mazi Smith? | GBAG Nation

Here’s Greg Ellis talking Mazy Smith here. Mazy, you do have to look at the coaching change. The year before we got there, it was more just vertical, get up the field, get up field, get up field. Really not Mazy’s game to be honest with you. I think he played better last year. He flashed some good stuff in my opinion, but he kind of showed why did the Cowboys draft him, what they saw. Now we switching up again and from my understanding this again more vertical charge. More vertical charge. But hopefully they factor something into the equation to allow Mazi superhero ability to flash. If not, you may need to just trade him. I like I like what Greg’s doing there. I’m sure there’s a lot of buyers on Mazy Smith right now. Do you think you get a player to be named later? Cash considerations. The cash being the fives that Bris is going to put on the uh the Nick Sabin return to LSU. Yeah. Yeah. I I I think teams would say back, uh, we’ll wait until you cut him, you know, uh, we’re not we’re not that hot on him. Is there any chance here, Brian, for Mazy Smith? Well, if you watch the games that he played against division opponents, that’s your hope. I mean, if I was a pro personnel guy and I was trying to sell him to our to our staff, I would say, “Here’s the cutup I did of him playing against the world champs for a couple times and here’s against the Commanders who were in the finals, you know, and then here’s against the Giants, you know, and try and show that that that kind of film about him and uh, you know, put together a pretty good reel.” Yeah, I mean, you could you could sell them that way. Uh, but the problem they’re going to ask you about is consistency. that’s, you know, well, what about the other games? And I’m like, well, this this kind of this is who he is right now. How about to Greg’s point of him playing a different style than what he was was best at? and can you you know on a well he was always a two gap guy and coming out of Michigan that was a problem and that’s why he lost all that weight because he was hearing how he wasn’t quick enough and but at Michigan he played that scheme where he came off the ball he extended into the blocker he looked inside he looked outside and then he reacted to the ball Michigan if you watch their guys which we did and they had they had some really good defensive linemen this year they played up the field it’s a completely different scheme than what they had played in the past years. And so, you know, with Mazi, it’s just about getting more consistent of trying to like put plays back to back, not have one or two good plays and then two or three bad plays in a row or plays where he’s not a factor. That that’s the biggest problem with Mazy is he just can’t play to a level where he’s just where it’s just like the it’s like a series of boy, that was good Mazy Smith football right there. I I I think and I don’t want to crush him for the quote, but there is something to him saying whenever it was rookie year, whenever like I don’t even really like football. I just like hitting. Oh no, no, no. That’s the problem. And I think this is where Will Mcclelay and the staff and there were some questions and they might have taken a guy in Gayton the same way that might not have liked football, you know, and there were some questions about that. And so there’s uh you know the I think Will Mcclelay and the staff got together and with the coaches and kind of said listen we need to take Will even talked about it pre-draft meeting even he I mean he made it a point of emphasis about hey what we’re looking for and getting back on that train of getting guys that that do love football. But Tyler Booker said hold my beer and watch this. Yeah that’s right. The entire draft class is all about that. Captains and high character guys that love the sport. That’s if you if it’s a hard game if you don’t love the game, it’s a hard game to play. I think Greg Ellis saying Mazy’s superpower to me superpower coming out was his strength and his power. Yeah. And I think the Cowboys did him a disservice. And I mean Will Mcclelay might be driving around listening and saying go f yourself, Willie. But they immediately talked about him having untapped pass rush potential. I I I don’t I don’t really care about Mazy’s pass rush. If you if he developed that, cool. Awesome. But I think they were kind of asking him to do something and maybe in his own mind he started focusing on this and that’s not a strength of his is getting up the field and being this wiggle guy that can go and you know if weird right it’s it’s I’m a power player. I can take on blocks. I can stop the run. I’m a true one tech. And him losing weight was like what’s happening here? And he did it so he could be get he could get faster and fire off the footballer. Yeah. So, I I mean I I do think, hey, whenever you’re dealing with position coaching changes, all of that can be tough on players. There’s a lot that goes on. I think he beat himself up mentally, too. We heard about that last He’s a very emotional player and you know he gets very sad because he hears people like us talk about how poorly he plays and it affects him and you know he could be in the locker room you know at at a game it could be after a win and he could be over there you know with tears coming down his face because he knew that maybe there’s some things that he didn’t do right and that’s going to be critical of him and yeah it’s just a it’s it’s it’s love I don’t need you to love the sport I just need you to fight that feeling in your own body that’s hard for him feel like that again. So, I’m going to try harder. It’s hard for him to do that. And and that last year, Zimmer and and Jeff Zaggina and Greg, everybody that got a chance to coach him at training camp would walk up, they’d put his arm around him. He’d come out to practice early, they’d work on his hands, they’d work on his technique. You know, they they really stopped like yelling at him. You know, there were times we’re watch we’re standing there in the end zone and you’re watching the drills and coaches before would be yelling at him and then he they they learned that they can’t yell at him because he immediately goes into a shell. Yeah. You could tell when that happened last year like they all started talking about him positively. Yeah. Everything would be coming over and talking him up. Everybody Everybody knew that like listen to for this guy to have any kind of a chance it was going to be about positive talk. I I I could be positive about him if last year under Zimmer had been so much better, you know, playing that two gap technique, but now that we know last season happened and all you got was a handful of games against divisional opponents that were slightly better, but still his overall performance was was very poor, I just think it’s time to move on, you know, and I would I wouldn’t waste a roster spot on him. I I think is where I’m at. Okay. Uh veteran report veterans reporting to camp on the on the 21st. So, what do we have here? We have six days. Mhm. They’re they’re going to be uh preseason game one August 9th. Just to set that out there. And this is my topic for you. How much should we see the starters in these preseason games considering how much new stuff, how many new players they have? Is this the year we’re actually Yeah. I’d be disappointed if they don’t. I mean, I I don’t think they could come out of the gate and the offense not be ready to go if they if they decide we’re not going to play Dak and not going to play this, not No. I I think you know that Andy Reid and I used to be the biggest wuss about this about listen I can’t replace these players if you get them hurt I can’t do it but this this season really at being the first one for for Shaimer he does need to set the the tone here and it doesn’t need to be okay we’re going to hold everybody back and see how things work in you know the opening game and then the you know then week five we’re all complaining because the offense isn’t any good it’s because they haven’t looked like they practice any you know that that’s always a question. They don’t look like they practice out there. Does this team practice when you watch, you know, I’ve had guys watch, you know, Mike Lombardi to me all the time. He goes, I’m watching your film. You guys practice down there, you know? I mean, he would ask me that question. And I’m like, I I you know, I I get to watch 15 minutes of it. I assume they do, but that that’s they they do need to they do need to one or two series and maybe even a quarter. They’ve only got three of these and they got a scrimmage against the Rams, which they’ll they’ll try and take advantage of, but they they need to do it. I’m with you. I was thinking a quarter and especially this year how important I think it is to get off to a good start with how tough that schedule could be. I mean, things can change with the rest the rest of the NFL, but you got to come out and be ready to ready to rock. You can’t be kind of getting into form and oh, we’re kind of playing ourselves into shape and into speed here. You need to be able to come out and possibly upset the Eagles week one. Yeah. You know, I think it’s huge for Tyler Gayton. I think every rep for Cooper BB is massive as he tries to take this big step. Um, you know, and you have a rookie right guard. I don’t know if Dak needs to be out there, but I feel like you’re moving from a lot of inside zone to maybe gap, you know, just just that difference. I want two or three games of my starting offensive line. I I can’t get that, but I could maybe get two or three halves. Yeah. Yeah. I I definitely think they should be playing more than what they’re used to playing. I think Dak should be playing. I think Dak should be playing, too. I I think he needs to. And I don’t know if it’s like, hey, you have one like dress rehearsal game where you’re playing like a full half or three quarters or whatever, or if you’re just playing a few series or a quarter in like each game, whatever it is. But you see teams, Isn’t the uh Chiefs play all the time? Yeah, the Chiefs are the the the Chiefs are the team that are legit. Well, the thing about it is you got three games in the last game, they don’t play any of the starters, so you really got two games to kind of figure some things out. Would you would you like a like one game where they play quite a bit or maybe two games where they play like a quarter each? Yeah. Give me the you know give me the game I think they play B they have the the Rams Baltimore and Atlanta. Give me the give me the uh give me the Atlanta the excuse me. Give me the Baltimore game. The second one. That’s good. Some really good competition at home. You know you’re they’re probably playing some of their starters for a good bit. You could probably get a better idea. I would I would go for the you know maybe keep it kind of light against the Rams to start the thing but then the Ravens go for it because then you give them you give them that third game off and then you got a what 10 day well you’re playing the short week you know because of the the early Thursday game I think you got to you know you you you’ll be fine if you get that Baltimore game done. All righty it’s the Gback Nation here on 1053 the fan every afternoon at 3:20 we give you the cote here the Cowboys news of the evening. I’m loaded, man. I have all kinds of topics here for you. Should Dak get sloppy like Mahomes or or Brady or or Goff? Like, is is being shredded and explosive actually what’s in his best athletic interest right now? I I don’t know. I I think there’s a debate to be had there. We’ll get into that a little bit later on. [Music]

Heading into his third season with no real impact to show so far, is this it for Cowboys DT Mazi Smith? GBAG discusses if the young defender can finally put things together in 2025 and more in this edition of the Cowboys News of the Evening.

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