Mazi Smith was a first-round draft pick in 2023. The Dallas Cowboys, looking to shore up a porous run defense, chose the mammoth defensive tackle with the 26th pick. He started 20 games for the Cowboys over his first two seasons before being traded as part of the deal that brought Quinnen Williams to Dallas.
The New York Jets acquired Smith in that trade and theoretically hoped he could relaunch his disappointing career in a new home. After being mostly invisible at the end of 2025, the Jets officially pulled the plug on that idea when they released Smith ahead of Sunday’s final cutdown.
Some NFL team is going to give Mazi Smith another chance. He is 6’3”, 337 pounds. He is a very powerful player who just turned 25. It is possible that, given the right circumstances, he could live up to at least part of the potential that made him a first-round pick. But his next chance should not come in Indianapolis. That would be a major mistake on the part of general manager Chris Ballard.
The Indianapolis Colts need to develop in-house talent before taking fliers on questionable outsiders
Anyone who watched the Colts play this preseason recognizes that the backup defenders are shaky at best. This is true at virtually every position on defense and continues an ongoing trend under Ballard’s stewardship of fielding a quality starting unit but failing to provide decent depth. That, as much as anything, explains the club’s tendency to collapse late in the season.
The defensive tackles slated to play behind starters DeForest Buckner and Grover Stewart have not been very impressive. Through three preseason games, opponents have slashed the Colts' defense by running right at it. The interior linemen, backed by suspect linebacker play, have not held up even when playing against backups on other clubs.
Ballard signed several journeymen veterans to compete for time this year. We’ll see soon enough if Jerry Teillery or Derrick Nnadi are part of the team’s plans. Neither veteran has been clearly better than several of the younger backup tackles, and that is where Indy should focus.
Adetowima Adbawore is probably the Colts' best depth piece on the interior of the line right now. They have high hopes for another young player – Colby Wooden – acquired in the Zaire Franklin trade. Both are quicker tackles, better suited to rush the passer than stop the run.
Mazi Smith was supposed to be able to stop the run. At Michigan, he was a terror. His size, power, and lateral agility suggested a player who could be dominant up front. But he has yet to show even an inkling of that type of playmaking skill at the NFL level.
Indeed, his Pro Football Focus (subscription required) grades as a run defender in his first three seasons are almost impossibly low. His top grade came in 2024, when he started for the Cowboys. Against the run, he graded out at 35.9. That is truly awful – among the worst in the entire NFL. And that was his best PFF grade.
The Colts already have a young prospect named Smith playing defensive tackle. Tim Smith, chosen in the sixth round of the 2025 draft, has not done anything for the team as yet, but he showed during preseason that he was improving, at least as a run defender.
He is one of the club’s bigger players, and though not nearly as physically imposing as Mazi Smith, he appears to be trending in the right direction while his namesake treads water.
It is essential for the Colts to begin developing more of their own in-house talent. That is how teams are able to better afford their superstars in the salary cap era. It provides continuity and predictability for a franchise. Most of all, it avoids either overpaying for another club’s star free agent or desperately reaching for journeymen to fill gaps in your own roster.
Mazi Smith would be a mistake in Indianapolis precisely because he would be a roadblock to the development of a player like Tim Smith. Neither Smith may ever be anything more than a modest presence in the NFL, but at this point, I would much rather travel that path with the player the Colts drafted and developed than with a once-touted star who has never shown he can produce.
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