Bohls: Needing offense, the Cowboys pick a Michigan tackle to add to their elite defense

FRISCO — There are boxes left to be checked, for sure.

Dallas needs a tight end after Dalton Schultz left for Houston. But the team didn’t draft one in Thursday night’s first round, even though Notre Dame’s Michael Mayer was available.

The Cowboys could use a guard as well. Wasn’t their choice.

Running back’s a position of need since no one knows whether Tony Pollard’s fractured leg will heal perfectly by September and Ron Jones’ shelf life has ended. That can wait.

Another wide receiver like speedster Jalin Hyatt wouldn’t hurt to supplement CeeDee Lamb and new free agent acquisition Brandon Cooks since Dallas is still paying for the sin of letting Amari Cooper go to Cleveland, where he has flourished. Nope. Didn’t go there, either.

Instead, the Cowboys took a defensive tackle with their 26th pick. A mammoth one out of Michigan named Mazi Smith.

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Though Executive Vice President Stephen Jones said the team had first-round designations for only about 11 players, owner Jerry Jones said the Cowboys ranked Smith somewhere around 13th or 14th. That would place the Wolverine senior among the upper echelon of the first round.

Dallas loves whom they landed. And scored big when Super Bowl finalist Philadelphia, the Cowboys’ chief rival these days in the NFC East, didn’t grab Longhorns tailback Bijan Robinson.

Asked if that made his day, Stephen Jones smiled and said, “I think the world of Bijan Robinson.” He then added — but only playfully, “I wouldn’t wish Philly on …”

The Cowboys made a big pick — literally

But defensive coordinator Dan Quinn and everyone else wished like crazy for Smith to fall to them. And the player Bruce Feldman of The Athletic ranked as the No. 1 Freakiest College Football Player did exactly that. This is a player with a high motor who can vertically jump 33 inches and bench-press 325 pounds an impressive 22 straight times.

He offers rare agility for his 6-foot-3 size and is a very big guy.

How big?

“Man, I’m 325 pounds, first off,” Smith said on a conference call late Thursday night when asked why he’s so good at stopping the run. “And I’ve got real power in my hands. I’ve been strong my whole life. My mom says I came out of the womb like I was doing pushups in there.”

Opposing offensive linemen best double their daily pushups regimen soon if they want to cope with the newest Dallas Cowboy.

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The offensive portion of Dallas' draft was set for Friday and Saturday, when the club was expected to address those positions. That much is obvious after the Cowboys used a first-round pick for an interior defensive linemen for the first time since taking undersized Russell Maryland out of Miami with the top selection of the 1991 draft to help anchor three Super Bowl wins in four years.

“And we got a lot of flak for overpicking him,” Jerry Jones said. “Hopefully we got a player of that kind of quality (in Smith).”

The Cowboys had their sights set on Smith all week and were delighted when he was available. All part of a plan to help a 12-5 team that had seven Pro Bowlers take the next step.

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“It’s clear we wanted to improve our run defense,” head coach Mike McCarthy said. “That was a focal point. We loved Mazi. He’s a great fit for us. We can take the ball away and have a pass rush. We want to be good against the run.”

A pick made with the NFC East in mind

That would be welcome since Dallas ranked a lowly 22th against the rush.

“Philadelphia’s leading the way right now,” Stephen Jones said. “And they run the ball well.”

Don’t the Cowboys know it. The Eagles averaged 152 yards rushing, and even though Miles Sanders went to Carolina, they grabbed Rashad Penny to go with Kenneth Gainwell. Still, they’re not Bijan.

Smith sure won’t shy away from contact. Just not his nature.

“Football’s taken care of me my whole life,” he said. “I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t put that helmet on and hit somebody. That’s just my nature. You know, that’s just kind of in my blood.”

As Stephen Jones said, Smith “brings an element to the run game, and we didn’t have anybody stopping the run other than (re-signed free agent lineman) Johnathan Hankins. He makes us a better defense at the end of the day.”

And defense has become the name of the game. At least, Dallas’ game.

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The unit once heralded as the Doomsday Defense has resurfaced under the superior coaching of Quinn and some meticulous drafting of stars such as Penn State linebacker Micah Parsons in 2021 and second-rounder Trevon Diggs, the Alabama cornerback, the year before.

That side of the ball has been elite for Dallas the past two seasons. The Cowboys led the league in takeaways each of the past two years and totaled 67 forced turnovers. That and a devastating pass rush from Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence helped propel Dallas to back-to-back playoff appearances.

Last year’s team went a step farther than the 2021 team. Dallas waylaid Tom Brady for the first time and held Tampa Bay to 14 points in the wild-card game. The Cowboys gave up just 19 to San Francisco the next week but didn’t get the job done.

Dallas just keeps getting better on defense and signed cornerback Stephon Gilmore this offseason as well. More and more playmakers on defense will make it that much easier for Dak Prescott and Pollard and Lamb to do their thing.

“We definitely hit that target,” McCarthy said.

And Smith’s ready to hit anybody in his path.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Dallas Cowboys add Michigan's Mazi Smith to bolster run defense