Some Takeaways From the Cowboys’ Preseason Game at Seattle
Photo by: Stephen Brashear/AP Photo
Seattle, Washington (PSF) - Measured, well-reasoned concern about Mazi Smith feels valid about right now.
If you say he’s a bust, you are overreacting. If you’ve already given up on him, you are overreacting.
If you notice that he has looked slow off the snap two weeks in a row at times and that he is getting blown up off the snap at times because of said slowness, you are using a valuable sense that us humans have called “vision”.
Photo by Ben VanHouten/AP Photo
To be clear, there have been some solid reps for Mazi, but it is also okay to say that the general appearance has been disappointing so far. Smith has one of the best defensive coordinators of the 2000s-present day coaching him. Give him time to develop. He’ll be fine.
The rest of the D-line looked great though!
Junior Fehoko, the Cowboys’ 4th round rookie defensive end, made his debut in Seattle. Quite a good first impression — a couple of pressures and he looked generally disruptive. Another guy who is getting pressure out the wazoo (and a sack too), undrafted end Isaiah Land. The Florida A&M product was the SWAC Defensive Player of The Year in 2021 and ended his college career with 29 sacks in just 29 games played. He’s had eight pressures total in two preseason contests. Perhaps a sleeper candidate to make the 53? Eh, he might be fully awake to obtain his roster spot at this point.
Finally, Sam Williams appears poised to make a sophomore jump. He had a sack, adding to his already productive preseason.
Since I mentioned sleep in the last blurb, concerns about Deuce Vaughn’s size should go/have gone beddy-bye
It feels safer and safer to bet on Deuce Vaughn making the 53-man roster as the weeks pass. I wanted to be conservative about my thoughts on Deuce Vaughn heading to the Cowboys. You need to be humble. Many of us felt the need to reference his size and worry about how it would translate to the NFL. All along, his productivity and dominance in college should have told us the entire story.
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Deuce Vaughn will make this roster. Ironically, his smallness might help him more in the NFL than it did in college. The ability to make guys miss is actually too fun to watch. Now that he has even more physically imposing people trying to tackle him, the funness (not a word) multiplies. Can’t wait to see more of Deuce.
That offensive line depth is looking razor thin, and it is hard to imagine a scenario where it doesn’t bite the Cowboys at least once this season
It is past time to ring the alarm bells on this offensive line depth. I mentioned in my first PSF article about how the o-line is thin at some positions. Now that training camp has happened and preseason games have given us a live-action look, it becomes obvious it is thin at every position.
Photo by Jennifer Buchanan/ The Seattle Times
Chuma Edoga got carted off the field a couple weeks ago, Matt Waletzko has a shoulder injury (that doesn’t appear serious), but the most alarming reality is that the line just hasn’t inspired much confidence through two games. It hasn’t been nightmarish, but it hasn’t been a sight for sore eyes, either. With the documented injury history of Tyron Smith and Terrence Steele coming back from major injury, along with the unpredictable and freak nature of some injuries in the NFL, it is hard not to bite our collective nails as Dallas fans when visualizing the offensive line in 2023.
If they are entirely healthy for the year, then great, this point will be moot. It is a top-10 line in the league on-paper. The fear is that the razor thinness will materialize in devastating fashion.
To avoid being completely pessimistic, rookie 5th round guard Asim Richards has looked stable in his first two bites of NFL action. That’s really all you can ask for. Also, Josh Ball does look better at guard than he ever has at tackle…which is nice.
