There are losses, and then there are the kind that stick with you. That Week 15 collapse against the Commanders? Definitely the second kind. The Cowboys came out looking like they were trying to win a creativity contest instead of a football game. Trick plays went nowhere, flags flew left and right, and the run game straight-up disappeared. Dallas didn’t need more flash. It needed to lock in, simplify, and play grown-man football.
And if you’ve been listening to the players talk lately, one thing’s becoming clear: Brian Schottenheimer wants to bring that edge back. Not gimmicks. Not fireworks. Just plain…simplicity. And when you add in some context, this might be their biggest shift yet.
The first day of the Cowboys’ training camp kicked off with optimism and with some instructions. The theme? Keep it consistent, keep it simple, and swarm to the ball. The same things your middle school coach tells you. “I think just being consistent the way we were. The messages that they expressed to us, ultimately, where they wanted to see us at when we came back for training camp, just building upon that,” Tyler Smith said. Just offseason fundamentals.
Brian Schottenheimer applauded the #Cowboys effort in minicamp and OTAs last month. How can they carry that into Oxnard?
Tyler Smith: “I think just being consistent the way we were. The messages that they expressed to us, ultimately where they wanted to see us at when we came…
— Nick Harris (@NickHarrisFWST) July 20, 2025
Defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa echoed the ideology. “Just keep it simple. Keep it to the things we were doing in OTAs, getting to the ball and flying around.“ After stumbling to a 7–10 finish last season, the Cowboys are hitting reset. Schottenheimer’s approach feels like a fresh start: strip away the noise, tighten the focus, and build from the ground up.
Under Brian Schottenheimer, who led the league’s No. 1 scoring offense in 2023 (29.9 points per game) as OC, expectations are obviously high. Because last season had its flaws. Some real ones. The offense leaned heavily on the quarterback, with a whopping 76% of plays coming out of shotgun (second-most in the league). That kind of imbalance threw off rhythm and stripped the unit of a true identity. The fundamentals? Shaky. Missed blocks, blown gap assignments, and a lot of mismatches.
This offseason feels like a reset. With Zack Martin gone, Tyler Smith’s stepping into the leadership role up front, and he’s not exactly green anymore—entering what could be his third straight Pro Bowl season. On the flip side, Mike Zimmer’s defense is already showing signs of life, and even the offensive guys are feeling the shift. As Osa put it: “get to the ball and fly around.” No extra fluff, no overcomplicating. Just straight-up, clean football.
But with Smith taking on that leadership role, his contract situation becomes all the more important. What exactly is going on there?
Tyler Smith’s quiet contract statement
The former first-rounder out of Tulsa has been nothing short of a monster up front. He just wrapped up his third Pro Bowl in four years and is already being talked about as one of the best interior linemen in the game. Coaches, execs, and scouts ranked him No. 2 league-wide. Just behind Trey Smith, who recently landed a $94 million extension.
Smith’s 2025 base salary is locked in at $23.4 million after the Cowboys picked up his fifth-year option. With Zack Martin and Tyron Smith both retired, the left guard job is officially his. But Tyler’s not getting caught up in the hype. “That’s not up to me… I can only control what I can control, and that’s coming in and working,” he said.
The Cowboys need Smith to be exactly what they drafted him to be: a steady anchor up front, a road-grader in the run game, and the kind of tone-setter that championship teams lean on. Over the last two seasons, he’s only given up three sacks in total, putting him among the top 10 offensive linemen with 1,500+ snaps league-wide. That’s elite-level consistency, and in a post-Zack Martin world? It matters a lot.
With Tyler Smith holding down the interior, Dak Prescott gets time, the ground game stays efficient, and the whole offense clicks the way Schottenheimer envisions: clean and simple. If Smith can carry out what Brian is asking of them, Dallas is set for the next few years. And when the Cowboys finally write the big check? They’ll know it’s for a player who deserves every penny.
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