{"id":93370,"date":"2025-08-25T14:54:29","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T14:54:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=93370"},"modified":"2025-08-25T14:54:29","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T14:54:29","slug":"shocker-cowboys-could-trade-away-a-draft-bust-right-before-the-deadline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=93370","title":{"rendered":"Shocker: Cowboys Could Trade Away a Draft Bust Right Before the Deadline"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"l-article__header\">\n<h1 class=\"c-headline c-headline--extra-large entry-title\">Cowboys Predicted to Trade Draft Bust Before Cut-Down Day<\/h1>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"l-article__meta\">\n<div id=\"subscribe-form-416060668\" class=\"c-subscribe-form\">\n<div class=\"c-subscribe-form__overlay\">\n<p>Sure, Cowboys defensive lineman Mazi Smith has not exactly worked out in his two seasons in Dallas.<\/p>\n<p>After a season of getting his bearings together in 2023, when he was the No. 26 overall pick by the Cowboys, Smith was the starter for all 17 games in 2024. And the results were about as bad as they could be.<\/p>\n<p>Smith registered a Pro Football Focus grade of 34.8 last year, which wads 117th out of 118 interior defensive lineman.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s not a promising showing for a player the Cowboys badly needed to improve.<\/p>\n<p>During this year\u2019s training camp, Smith has not quite showered himself in glory, either.<\/p>\n<p>Dallas can be decidedly stubborn as an organization, but Smith might just have been bad enough to warrant a trade ahead of cut-down day\u2013because there\u2019s a chance the Cowboys will just waive him altogether and come away with nothing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mazi Smith to Seahawks?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the view from ESPN\u2019s Bill Barnwell, who sees Smith as a top trade candidate on Tuesday, because otherwise, the Cowboys won\u2019t keep him on the 53-man roster.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t get too excited, Cowboys fans\u2013the return for Smith, according to Barnwell, would be a swap of fifth and sixth-round picks with the Seahawks.<\/p>\n<p><strong>He writes:<\/strong> <em>\u201cThe Cowboys used a Round 1 pick on Smith in 2023 in the hopes the nose tackle would be a valuable player in their run defense, but he has been a major disappointment. Dallas has played him regularly in the preseason, which hasn\u2019t been the case for its other prominent defensive tackles. There\u2019s not really a direct replacement for Smith on the active roster, but if the Cowboys don\u2019t think he will be used regularly, they might prefer to save the $4.5 million remaining on his deal and move on.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Cowboys Must Make Cuts on Tuesday<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Cowboys and all NFL teams will have until August 26\u2013that\u2019s Tuesday\u2013 at 4 p.m. ET to get their rosters down to 53 players.<\/p>\n<p>While Dallas has some difficult decisions to make, the bulk of the players who will be cut are expecting it, and are just hoping to get picked up elsewhere or land on the practice squad.<\/p>\n<p>But the Cowboys\u2019 big decisions will be whether to keep quarterback Joe Milton or Will Grier, and whether running back Miles Sanders, receiver Jalen Brooks and\/or Smith sticks with the final roster. If those players stay, obviously, someone else must go.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cowboys Bust Weighs in on Mazi Smith<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, one of the Cowboys\u2019 bigger busts in recent years\u20132017 first-rounder Taco Charlton\u2013sent a message on social media imploring fans not to compare his situation to that of Smith.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cStop comparing my situation to bros! He still got plenty of time to turn it around! I was released early because a coach didn\u2019t like my personality and I made a stupid tweet,\u201d Charlton wrote on X. \u201cThey goin give him time.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Maybe they will. Or, maybe, they\u2019ll trade him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cowboys Predicted to Trade Draft Bust Before Cut-Down Day Sure, Cowboys defensive lineman Mazi Smith has not exactly worked out in his two seasons in Dallas. After&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93376,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Shocker: Cowboys Could Trade Away a Draft Bust Right Before the Deadline - News 365<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=93370\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shocker: Cowboys Could Trade Away a Draft Bust Right Before the Deadline - News 365\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cowboys Predicted to Trade Draft Bust Before Cut-Down Day Sure, Cowboys defensive lineman Mazi Smith has not exactly worked out in his two seasons in Dallas. 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