6 Cowboys on the Hot Seat in the Second Half of Season
2. Mazi Smith, DT
The clock is ticking for Mazi Smith to prove that he deserved to be drafted 26th overall last year.
Despite displaying a fair amount of potential in college, Smith has looked completely pedestrian at the NFL level. The former Michigan Wolverine struggled immensely as a rookie and those issues have followed him into the current season as he's only registered 13 solo tackles while playing 49% of defensive snaps across nine starts.
Smith's season is even more disappointing given the help the Cowboys gave him over the offseason. After he was mismanaged as a rookie, the Year 2 goal was to give the 23-year-old more stability by helping him regain weight and deploying him in a position that he was more comfortable with. Even defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer's presence was supposed to help with a turnaround.
Instead, Smith enters Week 11 as Pro Football Focus' worst-graded interior defender with a defense grade of 30.3. The situation is only made worse by his 29.5 run defense grade, which ranks second-worst among 121 eligible players at his position.
If the Cowboys want to start stopping the run, they must take a long look at their defensive line — especially Smith. If management becomes unconvinced that he's capable of being a starting DT, options for a divorce could be considered this winter.
3. Ezekiel Elliott, RB
It'd be tough to find anyone — aside from Jerry Jones — who's been happy with Ezekiel Elliott's performance since returning to the Cowboys in the offseason.
Even though he's yet to hit the 1,000-yard mark since 2021, the Cowboys were still confident enough to roll with Elliott as their No. 1 running back to begin the season. He's looked like anything but an NFL-caliber player since then, recording only 171 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 54 carries in eight games.
That's without mentioning how the declining 29-year-old runner owns the ninth-worst run grade among 57 eligible RBs on PFF. No matter how that fact is looked at, it's clear that Elliott isn't even league-average at this stage of his career.
Elliott was initially placed on the hot seat when the Cowboys named him as a healthy scratch in Week 9. It should've been quite the reality check for a seasoned veteran who had never been scratched in his NFL career before that moment. But instead of learning from the situation, Elliott returned to action one week later with a 22-yard performance on six carries, which also included a fumble.
If Elliott can't prove that he has something left in the tank, he's going to have a tough time convincing any team — not just the Cowboys — that he deserves another contract in 2025.