No matter how offenses change in the NFL over the year and no matter how may different positions we invent names for, the job description for interior defensive linemen has remained the same.
While they don’t have to be the tallest guys on your defense — although height does matter somewhat — they almost always have to be the heaviest.
With the average size of the five offensive linemen named NFL All-Pro in 2024 at approximately 6-foot-4 and 319 pounds, the type of defensive players able to square off with those kinds of Kaiju are rare creatures.
Bleacher Report’s Brent Sobleski thinks the Dallas Cowboys may have landed the rarest of monster hunters with rookie seventh round pick (No. 217 overall) Jay Toia, a 6-foot-2, 342-pound UCLA product Sobleski called one of the NFL’s top “Draft-Day Steals” following the start of OTAs.
“(Toia) is a powerful, old-school nose tackle capable of eating up blocks, resetting the line of scrimmage and (will) allow those around him to make plays while he does the dirty work,” Sobleski wrote on June 1.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Nick Harris reported Toia was already seeing work with the Cowboys’ starters during OTAs. Mandatory minicamp runs from June 10-12 and
“Cowboys DT Jay Toia (rookie seventh-round pick) saw some burn with the ones today,” Harris wrote on his official X account on May 29.
Toia Called One of Draft’s ‘Best Run Defenders’
Toia has already shown a high level of proficiency doing the hardest thing his position is asked to do — stopping the run. ESPN’s Field Yates praised him for exactly that following the draft.
“After adding the best run blocker in the class early in Alabama’s Tyler Booker, the Cowboys selected one of the best run defenders late in Toia,” Yates wrote on April 29. “He anchored UCLA’s run defense, which gave up only 2.7 yards per attempt in 2023 (second best in the FBS). With great size, power and violent hands, Toia makes life easier for linebackers against the run. But he will be a minimal factor on passing downs.”
The Cowboys invested heavily in their defensive front in the 2025 draft with Toia and Maryland defensive tackle Tommy Akingbesote in the seventh round (No. 247 overall) and Boston College edge rusher Donovan Ezeiruaku in the second round (No. 44 overall).
Former First Round Pick Struggled in 2024
The Cowboys might not have had to use 2 seventh round picks on interior defensive linemen if they felt better about the future of defensive tackle and 2023 first round pick (No. 26 overall) Mazi Smith.
Smith’s PFF overall grade in 2024 put him among the worst defensive tackles in the NFL — 207th out of 219 eligible players at his position.
“Former first-rounder Mazi Smith endured a particularly tough 2024 campaign,” PFF’s Mason Cameron wrote on May 9. “He posted an abysmal 34.7 PFF overall grade, marking his second consecutive season of earning a sub-48.0 grade. Although Dallas signed Solomon Thomas in free agency, that doesn’t profile as the answer to the Cowboys’ 30th-ranked run-defense grade (48.0).”
While there’s a chance Toia might eventually displace Smith one day, there’s no reason for that to figure into his goals for 2025.
The Cowboys’ base defense uses 2 defensive tackles — any elite defense needs at least 3 and possibly 4 interior defensive linemen getting significant reps over the course of a season.
