{"id":92235,"date":"2025-09-13T12:41:36","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T12:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=92235"},"modified":"2025-09-13T12:41:36","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T12:41:36","slug":"cowboys-mazi-smith-breaks-silence-as-week-2-benching-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=92235","title":{"rendered":"Cowboys&#8217; Mazi Smith Breaks Silence as Week 2 Benching Looms"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-1610566072-e1757766900181.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 95vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-1610566072-e1757766900181.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780 780w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-1610566072-e1757766900181.jpg?quality=15&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-1610566072-e1757766900181.jpg?quality=35&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1350 1350w\" alt=\"Cowboys' Mazi Smith Breaks Silence as Week 2 Benching Looms\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" \/><\/figure>\n<div>\n<p>(Photo by Richard Rodriguez\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>Cooper Hodges #75 of the Jacksonville Jaguars is blocked by Mazi Smith #58 of the Dallas Cowboys in the second quarter in a preseason game at AT&amp;T Stadium on August 12, 2023 in Arlington, Texas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>It\u2019s safe to say that if \u00a0Mazi Smith were just another player, if the Cowboys had not squandered\u2013er, spent\u2013a 2023 first-round pick on him, that he would no longer be no the 53-man roster at this point. But the Cowboys did pick him, No. 26 out of Michigan, and because of that, the team needs to save face and see if there is yet something that can be made out of him.<\/p>\n<p>But for now, Smith is something of an embarrassment for the franchise, inactive, in street clothes and called out by broadcaster Cris Collinsworth on national TV in the league\u2019s Thursday night season opener last week. According to the Dallas Morning News, Smith is not expected to be active this week, either.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Mazi Smith: Coach \u2018Believes in Me\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Coach Brian Schottenheimer has been saying, since news of Smith\u2019s demotion set in, that the big issue coaches have with him is his lack of consistency.<\/p>\n<p>Smith addressed his new status as a roster hanger-on when he spoke to reporters on Friday. \u201cI\u2019m just trying to do what\u2019s best for the team and listen to my coaches and do exactly what they say, whether I\u2019m playing or not,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n<p>Smith added that he has been taking Schottenheimer\u2019s message on consistency to heart.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, it was something I needed to hear from him.\u201d Smith said. \u201cI do, but you can definitely have a real conversation with him and what\u2019s going on. He told me he believes in me and he knows what type of player I can be.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Cowboys Have Given Smith Opportunities<\/h2>\n<p>Of course, it could be argued that the Cowboys have little need for Smith after the trade of Micah Parsons to the Packers brought back defensive lineman Kenny Clark\u2013who does many of the things that the Cowboys would have liked to have seen from Smith.<\/p>\n<p>Smith started all 17 games for the Cowboys last season but flopped, finishing with a PFF grade of 34.8, which ranked 207th among 219 interior defensive linemen in the NFL. If there is faith that Smith can turn things around, it\u2019s hard to see where that faith is rooted.<\/p>\n<p>Defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus echoed Schottenheimer\u2019s sentiment on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust consistency,\u201d Eberflus said when asked how Smith can get on the field more. \u201cHe\u2019s done it. He just needs to do it at a more consistent level. And that\u2019s really it. That\u2019s been our message to him throughout the building, and he\u2019s been improving on that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sean Deveney is a veteran sports reporter covering the NBA, NFL and MLB for Heavy.com. He has written for Heavy since 2019 and has more than two decades of experience covering the NBA, including 17 years as the lead NBA reporter for the Sporting News. Deveney is the author of 7 nonfiction books, including &#8220;Fun City,&#8221; &#8220;Before Wrigley became Wrigley,&#8221; and &#8220;Facing Michael Jordan.&#8221; More about Sean Deveney<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cowboys DL Mazi Smith was inactive for Week 1 after starting 17 games last year. He spoke up about the benching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":92236,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cowboys&#039; Mazi Smith Breaks Silence as Week 2 Benching Looms - NEWS USA<\/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:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=92235\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cowboys&#039; Mazi Smith Breaks Silence as Week 2 Benching Looms - NEWS USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cowboys DL Mazi Smith was inactive for Week 1 after starting 17 games last year. 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