With the NFL preseason coming to a close over the weekend, the full focus of every franchise is now on getting its roster trimmed to 53 players ahead of Tuesday afternoon’s deadline. And as it pertains to the Dallas Cowboys, first-year head coach Brian Schottenheimer undoubtedly has plenty of tough decisions to make, one of which is whether to keep disappointing defensive tackle Mazi Smith.
As Smith was once named college football’s biggest “freak” due to his ridiculous blend of size and speed, which helped him earn First-Team All-Big Ten honors in his final season with the Michigan Wolverines in 2022, there was naturally a lot of excitement among fans of America’s Team when the Cowboys selected him in the first round of the 2023 draft with the 26th overall pick.
There is a lot of speculation that Smith could be shown the door. But not everyone is convinced that the Cowboys should end the experiment, as former Dallas defensive end Taco Charlton has come to Smith’s defense, which Mazi may not believe to be the best thing in the world for him right now—you know, what with Charlton being a first-round bust from Michigan himself.
On Sunday, Charlton took to his X account to let his thoughts be known on the matter. “Stop comparing my situation to bros! He still got plenty of time to turn it around! I was released early because a coach didn’t like my personality and I made a stupid tweet. They goin give him time,” Charlton wrote.
Taco Charlton goes to bat for Mazi Smith as Cowboys’ trim roster to 53 players
Like Smith, Charlton was a First-Team All-Big Ten selection in his final season with the Wolverines before being taken by Dallas in the first round of the 2017 draft with the 28th overall pick. And also like Smith, things just didn’t work out the way the Cowboys hoped they would.
Reported clashes with the coaching staff certainly didn’t help, nor did the injuries that kept him out of six games in his second season. In his third year, after being a healthy scratch during the first two games of the regular season, Charlton tweeted (and then deleted) “Free me” on what was then Twitter. He then tweeted, “Trust me the last thing I want to do is have to go to social media to get what I want so I can play football again.”
And that was the last straw. The Cowboys attempted to trade Taco, but after not finding a suitable deal, they just waived him and took the salary cap hit.
He was ultimately claimed by the Dolphins and then bounced around the league for the next few years, his last NFL regular-season action coming in 2022 with the Chicago Bears. Charlton has also played two seasons in the UFL, spending the 2024 campaign with the Birmingham Stallions and the 2025 season back in Texas with the Arlington Renegades.
Simply put, things just haven’t worked out. Smith showed flashes of brilliance here and there over the past two years, but from an overall standpoint, the bad far outweighs the good. While PFF grades don’t always tell the entire story, the fact that the Grand Rapids native ranked 208th out of 220 defensive linemen a season ago with a 34.8 overall mark says enough.
So, again, this may not be the kind of support Smith is looking for right now. Or maybe it is, as he may need all the support he can get as he awaits his fate. There’s a chance the Cowboys could trade him, of course, but we’ll just have to wait and see how things play out.
