Not long after the Dallas Cowboys traded defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa to the San Francisco 49ers in exchange for a third-round pick (No. 92 overall) in this year's draft, Jerry Jones, for once, offered up an extremely reasonable explanation, simply saying that this was the best move for the franchise at this point in time, given the situation with the players in place and the salary cap and such.
And at the NFL Owners Meetings this week in Phoenix, Stephen Jones, who has a ridiculous number of titles as co-owner, executive vice president, CEO, and director of player personnel, echoed his father's statements and added some class when discussing the deal (h/t Nick Harris, Fort Worth Star-Telegram).
"Osa's a really good football player. He represents everything you want in a football player, both on and off the field. He's a class act. He did everything the right way while he was a Cowboy.
It was just one of those situations with our resources in the interior defensive line; there were a lot of resources there. From a pick standpoint, it was nice, but obviously financially and cap-wise, there was a lot of resources tied up there, too."
Add us as a preferred source on GoogleThat's legit about the best way one could put it, as the Cowboys honestly didn't have much of a choice.
Trading Osa Odighizuwa made all the sense in the world for the Dallas Cowboys
"When we sat down and had our conversations with Christian [Parker], and where we needed to emphasize certain areas, then certainly we had to make a tough decision there. Again, I can't say it enough, what a class act Osa was, what he did for our organization, the way he represented himself as a leadership was second to none, and we wish him nothing but the best."
A third-round pick out of UCLA in 2021, Odighizuwa was a solid player for the Cowboys during his five-year run with the organization, and he was undoubtedly reliable, as he's only missed one game, that coming in his rookie year.
In that five-year stretch, among all defensive tackles in the league, he ranked fourth in quarterback hits (81) and 10th in pass rush win rate (11.5%). And just this past season, while he only tallied 3.5 sacks, he ranked first in quarterback hits (23), fifth in pass rush win rate (10%) and 20th in pressure rate (5.7%).
Yeah, that's a tough guy to give up.
But it just got really crowded for the Cowboys in the trenches. Last August, of course, Dallas acquired Kenny Clark from the Green Bay Packers in the Micah Parsons trade. And with the fuss Jones made over him, reportedly refusing to even do the deal unless Clark was included, you can't trade him. And even if they did, they wouldn't have gotten a third-rounder in return. Clark is still a very good player, but his age would've been a factor.
And then, at the trade deadline last November, the Cowboys traded for Quinnen Williams, who's one of the top DTs in the NFL. So, you're obviously not getting rid of him either.
All three players are set to make monster money in 2026. Clark's contract was restructured to create cap space, with his $11 million roster bonus turning into a signing bonus, but his '26 figure is still $12.7 million, and Williams' number is just a little over $21.63 million.
Odighizuwa, who signed a four-year, $80 million extension with the Cowboys last year, which included $52 million in guaranteed money, has a cap figure of $16.75 million this season and $20.5 million each of the next two years.
So, as Jones mentioned, the Cowboys had a lot of money tied up at the position, and someone had to go.