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Tyler Booker sprints to stage after Cowboys take him with 12th pick (0:20)
The Cowboys select Alabama G Tyler Booker with the 12th pick in the 2025 NFL draft. (0:20)
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, and last year they selected Tyler Guyton. Smith has been selected to the Pro Bowl the past two years, while Guyton had a middling rookie season in 2024, starting 11 games at left tackle.
The Cowboys went from 1981 to 2011 without drafting an offensive lineman in the first round when they took Smith in the first round. They followed that with Pro Bowl center Travis Frederick in 2013 and Martin in 2014.
Martin retired in February, while 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 o 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.”
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Booker is the highest offensive lineman the Cowboys have taken since selecting Smith at No. 9 overall.
Booker, at 6-foot-4 and 321 pounds, is considered one of the best run blockers in the draft. He started 27 of 28 games in his two seasons at Alabama and was a first-team All-SEC pick last season and team captain.
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.”
While 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.
