{"id":649310,"date":"2026-03-12T02:09:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T02:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/649310\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T02:09:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T02:09:15","slug":"cowboys-osa-odighizuwa-trade-opens-up-long-term-flexibility-creates-new-defensive-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/649310\/","title":{"rendered":"Cowboys\u2019 Osa Odighizuwa trade opens up long-term flexibility, creates new defensive need"},"content":{"rendered":"

By the time Wednesday rolled around, and the new league year was just hours old, a major question had emerged for the Cowboys<\/a>: Were there any linebackers left to fill their major need? Oh, and what about adding another corner? Oh, and how about adding another edge rusher?<\/p>\n

You get the point. Later in the day, the Cowboys manufactured another need. <\/p>\n

The Cowboys agreed to trade defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa to the San Francisco 49ers<\/a> for a third-round pick in the upcoming draft. The Cowboys will now have only 72 picks between their second first-round pick, 20th overall, and their third-round selection, 92nd overall. <\/p>\n

Just over a year ago, Odighizuwa celebrated a new contract extension with the Cowboys<\/a> worth $20 million per year alongside his family and a surprise bottle of champagne that Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer apparently sent him. Now, the former captain for the Cowboys is off to one of their NFC rivals. <\/p>\n

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The Cowboys wanted to get a Day 2 selection after they previously dealt their second- and third-round picks last year in trades for defensive tackle Quinnen Williams<\/a> and wide receiver George Pickens.<\/a> They accomplished that objective Wednesday, but at a significant cost. <\/p>\n

Odighizuwa wasn\u2019t the only Cowboys defensive tackle traded on Wednesday. News broke just minutes after the Odighizuwa trade that the Cowboys were also trading defensive tackle Solomon Thomas to the Tennessee Titans<\/a> in a seventh-round pick swap. The Cowboys moved up seven spots, from No. 225 to No. 218, in the trade. <\/p>\n

The Cowboys will carry $16.75 million in dead cap space, according to Spotrac. They also opened up $7.22 million in cap space. <\/p>\n

The moves will also open up long-term flexibility for how the Cowboys want to handle their defensive line. Members of the Cowboys front office have spoken highly about the Cowboys\u2019 two other highly-paid defensive tackles, Williams and Kenny Clark. The Cowboys will likely explore an extension for Williams, who has two more years remaining on his deal. The Cowboys also restructured Clark\u2019s contract<\/a> earlier this week, securing his place on the roster. <\/p>\n

Still, it\u2019s fair for Cowboys fans to wonder why the Cowboys would trade one of their best defensive linemen. Odighizuwa never had the flashiest statistics, but he supplied interior pressure from the defensive tackle spot. He led the team with 52 pressures this season, according to Pro Football Focus. He had a career-high 60 pressures last season, placing him second behind only Micah Parsons. Now, both are gone. <\/p>\n

The logical answer is the change atop the defense. The Cowboys are shifting to a 3-4 base under new defensive coordinator Christian Parker.<\/a> In theory, the trio of Clark, at nose, and Williams and Odighizuwa could\u2019ve worked. Now, there\u2019s a chance Clark could play more of a defensive tackle position than nose tackle, like originally presumed. The Cowboys also signed former Chargers defensive tackle Otito Ogbonnia<\/a> to add some versatility.<\/p>\n

The Cowboys also traded for defensive end Rashan Gary from Green Bay<\/a> and added two versatile safeties in Denver\u2019s P.J. Locke<\/a> and Arizona\u2019s Jalen Thompson. <\/a><\/p>\n

There\u2019s still work to be done, however, to fix a defense that was the worst in the NFL a season ago. Depth is now lacking on the defensive line. It\u2019s a newer need. It\u2019s another box the Cowboys have to check in the rest of free agency, in the trade market, and in the draft. <\/p>\n

The last avenue is starting to look like the most direct path. It\u2019s also going to be the most crucial. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s still time, but the Cowboys are now staring the possibility of having to mend multiple starting holes on defense with draft picks. Defensive linemen and edge rushers, as well as corners and linebackers, are all possibilities with their two first-round picks and their now additional third. They\u2019ll likely need those rookies to play early and often.<\/p>\n

The good news: that\u2019s one of the reasons they brought in Parker from Philadelphia. They saw how he assisted rookies Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean toward becoming pivotal players on the Eagles\u2019 2024 Super Bowl defense. <\/p>\n

\u201cBecause that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do,\u201d Schottenheimer said from the NFL scouting combine. \u201cWe\u2019re going to draft guys, evaluate guys and sign guys and make them play early like we\u2019ve done a little bit on offense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Right now, it\u2019s looking like they might have no choice. No pressure, right?<\/p>\n

Find more Cowboys coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/b><\/a>.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By the time Wednesday rolled around, and the new league year was just hours old, a major question…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":649311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,347,29841,237669,7311,1596,8998,1232,4261,62,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-649310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-america","tag-article","tag-brian-schottenheimer","tag-christian-parker","tag-cowboys","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-cowboys","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-draft","tag-sports","tag-texas","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116213774686240795","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}