In the past three months, the Dallas Cowboys saw Tyron Smith and Zack Martin, two of their greatest offensive linemen in team history, retire, but they are hoping Alabama's Tyler Booker can continue the organization's first-round success up front.
The Cowboys took Booker, a guard, with the 12th selection in the NFL draft Thursday night, marking the third time in the past four years that they have used their top pick on an offensive lineman.
In 2022, the Cowboys took Tyler Smith, who has been selected to the Pro Bowl the past two years, and last year they selected Tyler Guyton, who had a middling rookie season in 2024, starting 11 games at left tackle.
The Cowboys went without drafting an offensive lineman in the first round from 1981 to 2011, when they took Tyron Smith. They followed that with Pro Bowl center Travis Frederick in 2013 and Martin in 2014.
Martin retired in February, and Tyron Smith, who played last season with the New York Jets, retired last week after signing a deal to retire as a Cowboy.
"I'm super excited to come in and to be a Cowboy," Booker said Thursday. "I watched Zack Martin a lot growing up. He is a Hall of Famer. But I think I would be doing me and the organization a disservice if I go in there trying to be Zack Martin.
"I'm going to be Tyler Booker every single day I'm in there. I'm going to learn parts of Zack Martin and what made Zack Martin, Zack Martin, and I'm going to add that to Tyler Booker. I'm not going to go in there trying to be Zack Martin. I'm going to go in there being Tyler Booker."
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said the way the NFC East is set up -- with strong defensive tackles on all of Dallas' division rivals -- played a part in the decision to select Booker. But there was also a Dak Prescott aspect to the pick as well.
"When you make somebody the highest-paid player in the NFL, you'd like to have something in front of him," Jones said. "That's kind of cute talk, but it's really fact talk. We are interested in making sure we had the kind of protection and frankly, if you will, the ability to move big guys out. That was a big part of the thinking."
The Cowboys had Booker in for a visit to The Star before the draft and also had meetings with him at the combine.
"When you sit down and visit with this guy, he's an alpha," coach Brian Schottenheimer said. "He knows what he wants. He knows how good he is. He knows how talented he is. I think you look at what you got with Tyler Smith at left guard, Cooper Beebe (at center) and now you add this guy, the interior of your pocket, the core of your run game, all that stuff inside, we want to move people. And we want to own the line of scrimmage, and this is a guy that gives us the chance to do that."
Booker is the highest-picked offensive lineman the Cowboys have taken since selecting Smith at No. 9 overall.
At 6-foot-4 and 321 pounds, Booker is considered one of the best run blockers in the draft. He was a team captain and first-team All-SEC pick last season.
When asked about potential criticism of the Cowboys' selection, Booker pointed to his accomplishments at Alabama.
"I would say turn on the tape, because three years at Alabama, I just straight up dominated," Booker said. "I was a dude at the University of Alabama. I was that guy in SEC for three years straight. It takes a lot for a person to be that."
Though Booker is viewed as an immediate starter, the Cowboys added Robert Jones and Saahdiq Charles in free agency and also have Brock Hoffman, who started seven games at right guard last year when Martin's season ended with an ankle injury.
The Cowboys officially picked up Tyler Smith's 2026 fifth-year option, which comes at a cost of $23.4 million. The Cowboys would like to sign him to a long-term extension but have yet to begin talks with his agent. Tyler Smith started at left tackle as a rookie with Tyron Smith out with a hamstring surgery but has been named a Pro Bowler in the past two years that he has played left guard.
Jones would not get into whether the Cowboys would have drafted wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan, who went eighth to the Carolina Panthers, had he been available at No. 12. As the Cowboys look to the second and third rounds on Friday, he said adding a receiver and running back is possible.
"We certainly have the ability to do that," Jones said. "It may not be at the level at receiver that maybe we might have looked at had the thing fallen a different way, but still there are receivers [and] certainly we've got some real possibilities at running back."