Longtime Dallas Cowboys left tackle Tyron Smith is calling it a career.
Smith signed a one-day contract to retire as a member of the Cowboys, after spending last season with the New York Jets. Smith was drafted by the Cowboys and was part of several dominant offensive lines in his 14-year career.
“After this past year, and then over the years of injuries and things like that, it just kind of felt like this was the right time to hang it up,” Smith said.
“I don’t want to be that guy down the line, to where I’m struggling down the line, and I want to be healthy for my kids and be able to wrestle around my kids. I’ve got some big kids now, and they ain’t the normal size, so you got to be in shape for them. So the decision came, and it came easy. I realized how much I put into this NFL, and I felt proud for what I did.”
Smith thanked his mother, his late uncle Jerome, his wife Holly, and his two children. He also expressed gratitude to his high school coach, Pete Duffy, and his agent, Joe Panos.
He made mention of many of the teammates who helped him in his early career, including offensive linemen Kyle Kosier, Doug Free, Andre Gurode, and Jeremy Parnell, tight end Jason Witten, quarterback Tony Romo, linebacker DeMarcus Ware, wide receivers Dez Bryant and Miles Austin, defensive end Jason Hatcher, and linebacker Sean Lee. He thanked his head coaches, Jason Garrett and Mike McCarthy, and the position coaches who helped him grow as a player; he thanked the athletic training staff, strength staff, equipment staff, as well as the Jones family, the Cowboys organization, and Cowboys fans.
He also shouted out many of his teammates from the dominant offensive lines of the 2010s: center Travis Frederick, guard Ronald Leary, tackle La'el Collins, whom Smith said “became like a little brother” to him, guard Joe Looney, who “made the game fun every day,” centers Tyler Biadasz and Connor McGovern, and the tight ends who played next to him.
He also recognized the running backs who ran behind him: DeMarco Murray, who rushed for 4,526 yards in four seasons, including an 1,845-yard, 13-touchdown 2014 season in which he won NFL Offensive Player of the Year; Ezekiel Elliott, who had four 1,000-plus yard seasons with the Cowboys; Darren McFadden, who rushed for 1,089 yards with Dallas in 2015; and Tony Pollard, who had two 1,000-yard campaigns in 2022 and 2023. Furthermore, he recognized the defensive players he battled with in practice throughout his career. He also recognized current quarterback Dak Prescott.
Smith then paid his respects to the Cowboys’ current starters on the offensive line: guard Tyler Smith, center Connor Williams, and tackle Terence Steele.
“Honestly, they’re doing everything they’re supposed to do right now,” Smith said when asked to give advice to the linemen. “They know that this part of the year is time to grind and stay together. Take what the last year was, and move on and make the corrections, and get better as a group.”
Smith was drafted by the Cowboys in the 2011 NFL Draft. He was named the starting right tackle at just 20 years old and played the entire season there. He switched to left tackle in 2012 and played 15 games. He played all of the snaps for the team in 2013, 2014, and 2015.
From there, injuries began to crop up. He played 13 games in each season from 2016 to 2019. In 2020, he played just two games before opting to have surgery for a nagging neck injury and missing the rest of the season. He played in just 11 games in 2021 due to ankle injuries. He missed most of the season again in 2022 after suffering a torn hamstring in training camp; he played just four games. He played 13 games in 2023. He signed a one-year deal with the New York Jets in 2024 and played 10 games before a neck injury caused him to miss the rest of the season.
Despite the injury struggles, Smith still won two First Team All-Pro selections in 2014 and 2016, three Second-Team nods in 2013, 2015, and 2023; eight Pro Bowl selections from 2013 to 2019 and 2021, and was a member of the NFL All-Decade Team for the 2010s.
