2025 OTAs and Minicamp Thread...

[boozeman]

Yeah, we have drafted a few days three NTs. Bohana, Ridgeway and Rodgers. But Toia feels a little different to me. The guy is quicker off the ball then any of those guys and plays stronger. Now maybe he washes out like they did (Technically Rodgers is still here) but I have higher hopes for him.

We will see but camp should be some interesting battles.

His start off the snap is noticeable and it is the one thing that Taco Mazi will never develop. You can’t suddenly develop instincts.

 

[Cowboysrock55]

His start off the snap is noticeable and it is the one thing that Taco Mazi will never develop. You can’t suddenly develop instincts.

Anticipating a snap doesn't seem that difficult but than I watch Mazi and I realize it must be to difficult for some.

 

[ravidubey]

Am I wrong for getting excited about this MFer?

Not the same playing style, but imagine stealing a Ratliff-type caliber player that late again on the line. I do think Whitecotton is a serious asset in terms of evaluation.

Man, we are all hoping he gets every opportunity. Taco Mazi needs to be benched . Sorry, but actions (or the Lack thereof) have spoken.

I know Landry would give him three years, but come on. We need Toia to step up!

 

[bbgun]

looks like a bit of a dandy

 

[bbgun]

"Men, countless great players have left Dallas without ever sniffing a championship. Now go out there and give it your all!"

 

[Cowboysrock55]

Man, we are all hoping he gets every opportunity. Taco Mazi needs to be benched . Sorry, but actions (or the Lack thereof) have spoken.

I know Landry would give him three years, but come on. We need Toia to step up!

I actually think there were a few games last year where he played at a really high level. I know the Steelers game was one of them. Not saying Mazi will ever be shit but I do think if he continues to improve he could be a solid NT yet. I also think a big part of getting the most out of Mazi is to keep his snap count low and his weight up. He is definitely a guy who tires which is why we need Toia to be able to be solid right away.

I also think underrated a little bit is the signing of Solomon Thomas. We really need to keep Osa fresh. And Solomon Thomas is the best backup 3 tech we have had in a long time. Someone we can actually feel good about putting on the field.

Rotation, rotation, rotation. You'll get the most out of all these guys by keeping their snap counts down. I also think we have an elite Dline coach which should help a lot with development.

 

[Genghis Khan]

"Men, countless great players have left Dallas without ever sniffing a championship. Now go out there and give it your all!"

Every time a player calls Jerry "coach", an angel loses his wings.

 

[Simpleton]

I actually think there were a few games last year where he played at a really high level. I know the Steelers game was one of them. Not saying Mazi will ever be shit but I do think if he continues to improve he could be a solid NT yet. I also think a big part of getting the most out of Mazi is to keep his snap count low and his weight up. He is definitely a guy who tires which is why we need Toia to be able to be solid right away.

I also think underrated a little bit is the signing of Solomon Thomas. We really need to keep Osa fresh. And Solomon Thomas is the best backup 3 tech we have had in a long time. Someone we can actually feel good about putting on the field.

Rotation, rotation, rotation. You'll get the most out of all these guys by keeping their snap counts down. I also think we have an elite Dline coach which should help a lot with development.

Yea I think Mazi right now is comparable to late career Jonathan Hankins, who is a solid enough rotational 1T who can give you 20-25 decent snaps on run downs, but you don't really want him as a starter or one of your best DT's.

Could he improve on that? Sure.

Could he regress to how he played as a rookie? Sure.

But he's not completely unplayable, he's just not what we all hoped he would be.

 

[ravidubey]

Yea I think Mazi right now is comparable to late career Jonathan Hankins, who is a solid enough rotational 1T who can give you 20-25 decent snaps on run downs, but you don't really want him as a starter or one of your best DT's.

Could he improve on that? Sure.

Could he regress to how he played as a rookie? Sure.

But he's not completely unplayable, he's just not what we all hoped he would be.

We were 30th in YPC and dead last in rushing TDs scored against. Mazi has a 34.8 PFF rating, 207th out of 219 D-Linemen. Say what you will about PFF grades, but that's damning.

Also it's granted that one man does not represent an entire run defense, but it's one of his most important duties on this team and we're clearly failing. I can't pretend he's anywhere close to what we need.

We could replace him with "any one of 206 other DL". Right now he's the very definition of a progress stopper and underperformer in a role where we simply can't have that. Average would be a major step up.

I don't know if the Joneses are ready to give up and f'ing allow others to compete with Smith straight up. I think they've named him the starter and there's a good chance they could get stubborn about it.

 

[Rev]

Thats improvement. He was 219th.

 

[Cowboysrock55]

who can give you 20-25 decent snaps on run downs

I mean how many run snaps are there a game. You divide those between Toia and Mazi and in the end you have a guy "starting" who isn't really getting 50% of the defensive snaps. It's why I have said, you don't have to think of any NT really as a starter. You're just rotating big bodies in there when needed and rotating them out for pass rushers when you can get the offense in second or third and long.

 

[Cowboysrock55]

Thats improvement. He was 219th.

In all fairness PFF thinks everyone on our defense last year was God awful.

 

[Simpleton]

We were 30th in YPC and dead last in rushing TDs scored against. Mazi has a 34.8 PFF rating, 207th out of 219 D-Linemen. Say what you will about PFF grades, but that's damning.

Also it's granted that one man does not represent an entire run defense, but it's one of his most important duties on this team and we're clearly failing. I can't pretend he's anywhere close to what we need.

We could replace him with "any one of 206 other DL". Right now he's the very definition of a progress stopper and underperformer in a role where we simply can't have that. Average would be a major step up.

I don't know if the Joneses are ready to give up and f'ing allow others to compete with Smith straight up. I think they've named him the starter and there's a good chance they could get stubborn about it.

I get it, on paper it looks bad, but I think his individual performance (and the defense as a whole) was skewed by how horrific they were over the first 6 or so games of the year when the entire defense was completely out of sorts and historically bad.

They regularly gave up 200+ rushing yards and 450+ total yards over the first 6 games of the year but I think the entire defense, and the run defense in particular really started to turn a corner around the time of the Atlanta game. It's not a coincidence that some of our top defensive players started coming back around that time also.

Just looking at the rushing stats this is what they did from the Atlanta game onward, with Mazi playing a large % of snaps, larger than he really should be playing this year:

• Atlanta: 30/100 total (3.3 YPC), leading rusher was Bijan Robinson at 19/86 (4.5 YPC)
• Philly: 38/187 (4.9 YPC - but Hurts had 7/56, take that out and they only gave up 4.2 YPC), Barkley had 14/66 (4.7 YPC)
• Houston: 25/141 (5.6 YPC), Mixon had 20/109 (5.4 YPC)
• Washington: 25/145 (5.8 YPC - but Daniels had 7/74, take that out and it's only 18/71 for a 3.9 YPC), their leading rushing RB was Ekeler at 9/22
• Giants: 21/116 (5.5 YPC - somehow Drew Lock ran for 4/57, take that out and they only put up 17/59 for 3.4 YPC), their leading rushing RB was Tyrone Tracy at 9/32
• Bengals: 19/74 (3.9 YPC), Chase Brown had 14/58 (4.1 YPC)
• Carolina: 16/60 (3.75 YPC), Chuba Hubbard had 10/32
• Bucs: 23/134 (5.8 YPC - Baker had 3/42, take that out and they only had 20/91 for 4.5 YPC), Bucky Irving had 16/68 (4.3 YPC)
• Eagles: 42/179 (4.3 YPC), Barkley had 31/167, but in the first half he only had 13/40, the stats look out of control because they were letting him stat pad to get to 2,000 in the second half when the game was over at halftime
• Washington: 18/113 (6.3 YPC, but their two QB's had 9/83 rushing, take that out and their RB's only had 9/30 rushing)

So we faced four of the top 10 rushers in the league over that stretch (five if you want to count Barkley twice) and only gave up: 19/86, 14/66, 10/32, 16/68 and a very, very skewed 31/167. That's consistently only giving up around 4.3-4.5 YPC and less than 100 yards against elite RB's except for the one outlier Barkley game where he was under control in the first half and stat padding in the second after we were down 24-7 at halftime.

It's hard for me to blame Mazi for QB's running on us when often times that's coming on scrambles in passing situations when he isn't even on the field. Take out the QB rushing stats and we were regularly holding teams to right around 4 YPC or less, and again, often times against teams with RB's who ended up top 10 in the league in rushing.

Of course I don't aspire for our run defense to only hold teams to 4.5 YPC, but my point is that the run defense was generally respectable over the second half of the season with Mazi being the starting NT.

 

[boozeman]

 

[boozeman]

 

[boozeman]

 

[Chocolate Lab]

 

[bbgun]

well jeez, I would hope so

 

[Cowboysrock55]

well jeez, I would hope so

You know how coaches like to play silly games with rookies. Nice to see them cut through the BS and just try to get ready for the season. At least thats what it looks like for now.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

Stephen pretty much named him the starter in the postdraft PC.