THE COLONY, Texas — Moving from one side of the offensive line in college to the other in the NFL isn’t always a seamless transition as a rookie, something Dallas Cowboys 2024 first-round pick Tyler Guyton admitted this offseason after a roller coaster first season. 

However, Tyler Booker, Dallas’ 2025 first-round pick, is enjoying his transition from being an All-America left guard at Alabama to becoming seven-time first-team All-Pro Zack Martin’s successor as the Cowboys’ next starting right guard. 

“It’s been a lot of fun,” Booker said Thursday. “You have to think a little bit more, but at the same time, it’s technique that you’re a lot more cognizant of what you’re doing with your body. It’s not too hard because my freshman year at Bama, I would get two drives at left guard and two drives at right guard. Shout out to Coach [Nick] Saban and [offensive line coach] Coach [Eric] Wolford for getting me ready for the NFL.”

Booker values his time with the Crimson Tide so much that he couldn’t avoid grumbling about leaving his alma mater without a national championship ring. During a lunch break at Duke Manyweather’s OL Masterminds summit hosted by Cosm Dallas, the venue’s massive LED video screen dome was showing a replay of the 2025 College Football Playoff national title game between Notre Dame and Ohio State. That’s when the 12th overall pick started shaking his head about his final season in Tuscaloosa.

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“I love to win and I hate to lose. I lost too much this past year. I lost a lot more than I should have in college, me being at Alabama,” Booker said. “I left without a national championship and that’s something that is going to burn at me for the rest of my life. So I’m going to bring that burn and passion and desire with me to the NFL and transfer that over to wanting to win Super Bowls.”  

“This guy is a fantastic young man,” Saban said, via ESPN, on April 24. “I mean, smart, and you talk about a good leader. Very physical, very tough. Gets movement in the run, that’s why people like him so much. This guy’s got tremendous muscle mass, which I think is very important to be a power player in the NFL. … This guy’s got it all.”  

Having that internal fire in addition to two-time Pro Bowl left guard Tyler Smith, fresh off his second consecutive Pro Bowl three seasons into his career, lining up next to him is another key factor in Booker hitting the ground running in his first NFL offseason. Smith also dealt with a position switch as a rookie, moving to left guard after being a left tackle at Tulsa in college. He also shifted back to left tackle for a number of games when Tyron Smith suffered a hamstring injury in 2022. 

“I’m going to be that annoying rookie for him [Smith] and ask him a bunch of questions,” Booker said. “Seeing what he did that makes him the player he is today, and he’s still growing and improving as well. Just staying on top of him and continually asking him questions, seeing what I can do better. Seeing what he sees in me and what I need to do to get better and go to a higher level. … It’s very reassuring that he’s here [at the OL Masterminds summit], and I know that I’m on the same track as him.”

Thus far, Smith hasn’t found Booker to be annoying. 

“First of all, he’s a smart dude, he works extremely hard,” Smith said Thursday. “He’s dedicated to all his studies, and he asks questions and wants to do things the right way. That’s the most important thing you can be as a rookie: receptive to criticism as well as praise, just continuing to learn each and every day how to be the best version of yourself you can be. I think that’s something so far he’s exemplified in and out of the building.”

Booker’s competitive fire led him to have one “slip up” this offseason: putting one of his own football campers in the dirt at his football camp in his hometown of New Haven, Conn. 

“I didn’t think it was going to go viral like it did. It was just something funny, but that’s just who I am. I’m a competitor,” Booker said. “At the end of the day, it’s the Tyler Booker Football Camp. No one is going to beat Tyler Booker at the Tyler Booker Football Camp. That was my mindset. He had a great day at the camp, he was fine, and then he won [camp] MVP, so shoutout to him.”

However, that video has Smith even more excited up to line up next to Booker in Week 1 at the Philadelphia Eagles. 

“Obviously I was shocked, but at the same time, there’s a silver lining in everything,” Smith said. “I was like ‘if he’s going to do that to a child, I know that any man that’s across from him, there’s no mercy that’s going to be given. I like to see that he’s a merciless competitor.”