The Dallas Cowboys rewarded Osa Odighizuwa with a significant four-year contract extension worth $80 million last offseason, ensuring their homegrown talent stayed in Texas. During his career, the defensive tackle out of UCLA established himself as a reliable ironman, never missing a single game due to injury. During his contract year in 2024, he led the team in interior pressures with 60 and notched career highs with 4.5 sacks and 23 quarterback hits.
Since his extension, the Cowboys’ front office
has been busy remodeling the interior of the defensive line with big-time trades for big-time players. First, they added Kenny Clark as part of the Micah Parsons trade, and then later snagged Quinnen Williams with some of that Parsons draft capital. While these additions have been great trench warriors, they also come with a massive financial burden on the team’s books. The trio of Williams, Clark, and Odighizuwa takes up a large chunk of cap space, making the team’s defensive tackle budget rather expensive, and it has recently brought Odighizuwa’s name into the limelight.
Three high-priced defensive tackles are a lot, and it could mean that one of them is the odd man out, but which one would be the most likely candidate to get the boot?
The team is heavily committed to Williams as he’s an All-Pro talent who required premium draft capital to obtain. He’s definitely sticking around a while. There was some uncertainty about whether Clark would be part of their future as they could have simply moved on from this this offseason with no dead money penalty. The front office answered that question quickly, as they just converted $11 million of his 2026 base salary into bonus money to free up cap space this year. This confirms he’s sticking around since that money is now guaranteed.
And then there’s Odighizuwa. His contract situation is a bit of a labyrinth because his 2026 salary is already fully guaranteed, making him impossible to release without incurring a staggering $32.75 million in dead money. However, a trade offers a potential escape hatch if the Cowboys find a suitor willing to take on his salary, or maybe a sizeable fraction of it with Dallas picking up the tab for the rest. If they find a trade partner, they could get out from under his salary while recouping some draft capital. This would simply be the front office once again attempting to reshuffle its resources.
New defensive coordinator Christian Parker brings a new scheme to Dallas, and how Odighizuwa fits will loom large in their decision-making. For starters, a transition to a straight 3-4 defensive front makes Odighizuwa a fish out of water. He’s undersized for a 4i defense end, nor does he possess the traits of an outside linebacker on the edge.
Parker also asks his defensive ends to use gap-and-a-half principles, where he’ll be asked to hold at the point of attack and read the play before reacting. Osa is a pass-rushing 3-tech. He has a quick first step and is a one-gap penetrator. Odighizuwa is an effective pass-rushing defensive tackle, but isn’t a stout run defender. For a defense that wants to roll with lighter boxes, its defensive tackles must be capable of handling their run game assignments.
How Odighizuwa fits into the new scheme is an important consideration, especially given his cost. It would be great to keep him on the team, but not as an overpriced rotational player with a reduced role on the defense. After several big trades, the Cowboys are now handing out big chunks of cash to several players, so they need to be smart about where this money is being allocated. Moving Odighizuwa allows the team to balance the books and reinvest in areas of greater need while he finds a more appropriate home elsewhere.
The Cowboys have built a defensive tackle room that is too crowded for its own good, both on the field and on the payroll sheet. While Odighizuwa has been a solid performer, the arrival of Clark and Williams, combined with a scheme shift under Parker, makes him a luxury Dallas may no longer be able to afford. Trading him turns a potential cap headache into a draft-day asset, proving that sometimes the best way to move forward is to let go of the past.
