National Football League

Cowboys take OT Tyron Smith with No. 9 pick

Published Apr. 28, 2011 10:04 p.m. ET

foxsports

The Dallas Cowboys have spent a first-round pick on an offensive lineman for the first time under Jerry Jones' ownership, taking 20-year-old tackle Tyron Smith from Southern Cal.

The 6-foot-5, 310-pound Smith is the youngest player in the entire draft class. A starter for two years, he is likely to step in as the right tackle and be groomed to take over on the left side.

Dallas hadn't picked an offensive lineman in the first round since 1981, when the Tom Landry-Tex Schramm leadership took Howard Richards at No. 26. He didn't pan out, and neither have most of the linemen Jones' Cowboys have taken in the early rounds in recent years.