Cowboys' Brian Schottenheimer Bullish On 2 Under Pressure Players

Training camp is the time of year where players can solidify themselves among the active roster, or can see their NFL chance fall away, and for the Dallas Cowboys, they have a handful of players who are under pressure in 2025.

The most obvious ones are left tackle Tyler Guyton, who struggled in his rookie year, and defensive tackle Mazi Smith, who two years into his career, hasn't been the player Dallas wanted him to be.

Now, with two different offensive coaches for Guyton, and a new system under Matt Eberflus for Mazi, the pair will hit the Oxnard practice fields looking to stake their claim on the roster.

"Mazi looks great, he's excited, he's ready to go,” head coach Brian Schottenheimer said. “Tyler Guyton, I saw the thing of him training in the rain doing some boxing, he's worked his ass off. Why is training camp different? Because these guys actually get to hit each other. They get to lean on one another. And then when you play the game in the trenches, that's what matters.

"It's not what you do in OTAs, the key of training camp is you're able to do things that as close to simulates what you're going to do on game day.”

So, there will be a host of watchful eyes on Guyton and Mazi, both first-round picks, to see if they can take their games up a level in 2025.

Guyton, as Dak Prescott's blindside protector, is perhaps the biggest watch, given how the Cowboys want their offense to run, leaning on the rushing attack and working play-action passes off of it.

As for Mazi, selected to help stop the run, he's been through two coordinators in two years, and now makes it three with Eberflus. The penny has to drop soon for the Michigan stud.

And during training camp, we'll get to see if these two promising rookies can turn that potential into something tangible, because the clock is ticking.