Smith came to Dallas as a first-round pick out of Tulsa in 2022.<\/p>\n
A left tackle during his time with the Golden Hurricane, Smith was expected to move inside to guard as a rookie.<\/p>\n
When veteran left tackle Tyron Smith\u00a0suffered a torn hamstring, though, the rookie Smith was tapped as the next man up and looked like a natural as he started every game as the blindside blocker for a team that finished with the fourth-fewest sacks allowed in the NFL that year.<\/p>\n
In his sophomore campaign, the Cowboys shifted Smith back inside to the left guard position he was expected to play as a rookie.<\/p>\n
Despite missing three games, Smith was named a second-team All-Pro and a Pro Bowler. When Tyron Smith\u00a0departed in free agency, the team debated shifting Tyler Smith\u00a0out to the left tackle role\u00a0he excelled in as a rookie. Instead, Dallas drafted Oklahoma offensive tackle\u00a0Tyler Guyton\u00a0at No. 29 overall and trusted the rookie with the left tackle job, allowing Smith to earn another Pro Bowl bid at left guard.<\/p>\n
Now headed into the final year of his rookie contract, the Cowboys made the decision to\u00a0exercise Smith\u2019s fifth-year option. You don\u2019t often see teams utilize a fifth-round option on an interior lineman, since the system for calculating the value of fifth-year options groups the usually cheaper interior linemen with notably more expensive tackles. The Cowboys likely don\u2019t intend to pay out the option year but instead use the exercising of the option as a commitment to work towards an extension for the 24-year-old before his rookie contract expires.<\/p>\n
Back in May, Smith\u00a0changed up his representation\u00a0in anticipation of contract negotiations. ESPN\u2019s Todd Archer reports that Smith and the team\u00a0have started talks\u00a0towards a new deal, and new head coach\u00a0Brian Schottenheimer\u00a0expressed hope that Smith would be the next player to get locked in long term.<\/p>\n
Another player named as the\u00a0next potential top priority\u00a0for the team is defensive end\u00a0Sam Williams, according to Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News.<\/p>\n
The Cowboys\u2019 pick in the second round after Smith in 2022, Williams logged 8.5 sacks as a rotation rusher in his first two years with the team.<\/p>\n
He was expected to take on a potential starting role in 2024, but\u00a0a torn ACL\u00a0in training camp \u2014 with a partial MCL tear \u2014 took him out for the entire season. He now heads into the final year of his rookie contract and is once again expected to be a starter in 2025.<\/p>\n
As owner\/president\/general manager\u00a0Jerry Jones\u00a0works to make everybody\u00a0forget about\u00a0Micah Parsons, it may be in his best interest to sign promising young players like Smith and Williams to long-term deals. They have another three days to talk, if they hope to get any more deals done before the regular season is underway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Smith came to Dallas as a first-round pick out of Tulsa in 2022. A left tackle during his time with the Golden Hurricane, Smith was expected to… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95546,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"\n