The current players on the Cowboys’ defensive line will need to step up in 2024, regardless of what happens in the draft and free agency.
Whether there will be an addition to the unit in free agency and/or the 2024 NFL Draft is to-be-determined, but it wouldn’t change what’s going to be required of players like MaziSmith, Chauncey Golston, Sam Williams, and Junior Fehoko— or those on the fringes of the roster such as Durrell Johnson and Carl Davis, who will be clawing to retain a roster seat all summer.
Smith, the team’s first-round pick in 2023, has the talent and strength to be a dominant force at nose tackle, but a drop in weight as a rookie and a slowed get-off hamstrung his performance, and it will be paramount that, without Hankins, Smith execute a 180-degree turn under the tutelage of Mike Zimmer.