When the Dallas Cowboys signed defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa to a four-year, $80M deal, they did so with the intention of making him a cornerstone piece of their defense. The former third round pick was one of the NFL’s more efficient interior pressure players and served an important role on the Cowboys defensive line.
One year later and everything seemed to change in Dallas. Kenny Clark, the hard-working plugger from Green Bay, had been recently acquired, and Christian Parker, the Cowboys’ new defensive coordinator, had new visions of what the defense should be in 2026. With star defensive tackle Quinnen Williams an obvious mainstay inside, Parker opted to move on from Odighizuwa as he pivoted to an odd-man defensive front.
Trading Odighizuwa
to the San Francisco 49ers in March of 2026, Dallas essentially picked Clark instead of Odigizuwa. Despite being three years older, costing over $1M more in annual salary, and seemingly on the downslope of his career, Clark’s ability to play nose tackle made him the better fit for the Cowboys. Nine disappointing weeks later and some are wondering if the Cowboys regret such a decision.
Kenny Clark’s 2026 season
Clark's most recent action in Week 9 saw him produce a season high five pressures. He was also moved off his mark on multiple occasions, missing one tackle and producing a paltry 42.9 PFF grade in the process.
For the season, Clark grades No. 79 overall amongst defensive interior players. For as disappointing as his run defense has been this season, he’s fared better than one would expect as an undersized nose tackle. He’s hardly the player the Cowboys were hoping he’d be, but he’s been a positive influence on the locker room, team captain and only decent option in the middle of Parker’s defense.
Osa Odighizuwa’s 2026 season
Odighizuwa was long considered a player on the cusp for the Cowboys. As a possible breakout player in 2026, he looked like a lottery pick heading out to Dallas’ cross-conference rival this past spring, drawing plenty of criticism along the way. But aside from his innate ability to split double-teams, things haven’t gone particularly well for him this season either.
Coming off his best game as a 49er, Odighizuwa is still having a fairly disappointing season. He’s been even worse than Clark against the run and has graded out almost 20 spots lower by PFF, slotting in at No. 98 through nine weeks. PFF credits him with one more sack and four more pressures than Clark but overall, he’s been the more mistake-prone interior player of the two.
Cowboys verdict
Both players have been disappointing in 2026, with Clark coming in slightly ahead of Odighizuwa in grades and Odighizuwa ahead of Clark in splash plays. Subjectivity aside, the real difference in value comes from the roles they play and Clark’s ability to anchor the middle of Dallas’ 3-4 is no trivial detail.
Ideally, the Cowboys would have gone a different direction entirely at nose tackle and picked someone more stoutly built for the role, allowing Clark and/or Odighizuwa the ability to flank him along with Williams. Odighizuwa is the more talented player with youth and upside in his corner so it would have been nice to keep him and bend Parker's system around personnel rather than the other way around.
Clark is under contract at over $20M in cap costs for one more season while Odighizuwa’s deal runs through 2028 at roughly the same annual costs. Barring a sudden breakout from one of them, the advantage lies in which team can escape the contract first and that advantage goes to the team rostering Clark.
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This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: $20 million plus roster swap: Did Cowboys keep wrong DT?
