The Dallas Cowboys are, for all intents and purposes, facing as close to a must-win game as they can have in September with the New York Giants coming to town in Week 2 for Dallas' home opener. Beyond the most obvious troubling outcome of falling to 0-2 in the NFC East after two weeks of play, there appears to be more trouble brewing in JerryWorld.
Following comments made during his weekly appearance on 105.3 FM, there seems to be a real disconnect between how the depth chart is viewed by owner/GM Jerry Jones and head coach Brian Schottenheimer when it comes to 2023 first-round pick Mazi Smith.
Jones & Schottenheimer Appear Split on Mazi Smith Entering Week 2
Just one day after Jones went on the radio and said the Cowboys will have the same rotation at the defensive tackle position as they did during Week 1, when Smith was inactive, Schottenheimer offered a much different take during his time with the media on Wednesday afternoon.
“Mazi is a good player," Schottenheimer said, via Jon Machota of The Athletic. "The flashes are there. It’s just that the consistency has to be there more often. Just because you were inactive last week doesn’t mean you’ll be inactive this week.”
Given that Schottenheimer is the one who will work with Smith on a daily basis, everything the head coach of the Cowboys had to say on Wednesday makes perfect sense. From a purely motivational standpoint alone, suggesting that Smith was out of the rotation at DT altogether would do the player and the team no good, regardless of the motivation behind those comments.
On the other hand, Jones has already traded away the best defender that Dallas has had on its roster in quite some time, despite no one thinking he would actually go through with the move. He is going to speak his mind no matter how different his opinion may be than the coaches he employs. This is nothing new in Dallas, and Schottenheimer should already be aware of that.
One thing that both sides should be able to agree upon, though, is that keeping Smith on the roster only to make him inactive each weekend is not a course of action that benefits either side. If he is going to be part of that rotation of DT up front, as Schottenheimer suggested, then he should be uniform and available to play. If he is going to remain inactive, as Jones made it seem, then the Cowboys might as well attempt to trade him before cratering his value any more than it already is.
The sooner this can all be squared away, the better everyone involved will be.