The Dallas Cowboys had a busy Tuesday afternoon in the first week of March, a productive one for the first time in many years.
The day started by signing defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa to a four-year, $80 million deal that includes $58 million guaranteed and a $20 million signing bonus.
In four NFL seasons, DT Osa Odighizuwa has missed just one game and accounted for 172 tackles and 13.5 sacks.
His 78.5 pass rush grade in 2024, according to Pro Football Focus, ranked 11th out of 219 interior defensive linemen across the NFL.
This deal makes Osa Odighizuwa now the 14th highest-paid DT in the NFL per AVY. Getting this deal done at this price for much less than what everyone thought they were going to pay for him is awesome.
This was a step in the right direction and after they signed Osa they dropped a few other moves that you can see below. Moves that we don’t see the Jones family get out in front of until it is to late, so progress!
Two Other Moves
So we all know what the Osa signing meant, but how about a couple of other things they did that are worth noting.
First, the not-so-bigger one was that they signed special teams standout CJ Goodwin to a one-year deal. The man who makes the most plays on the unit stays for at least another year.
Goodwin dealt with an injury that cost him the majority of the 2023 season, but made a return last season.
He has played in a total of 88 games for the Cowboys since 2019, making him one of the most durable players in the league.
His experience and ability will go a long way for newly-added special teams coordinator Nick Sorensen.
The other thing they did made me happy.
The Cowboys have restructured the contract of Pro Bowl wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, creating $20 million of salary-cap space.
Additional cap space can help the Cowboys on several fronts and it won’t hurt their push to sign defensive end Micah Parsons to a long-term deal.
Lamb signed a four-year extension with the Cowboys last year and had 101 catches for 1,194 yards and six touchdowns in 2024.
Would expect the restructuring of Dak Prescott’s contract to come this week or before the start of the league year. That would get the Cowboys another $36m-$37m depending on how much base salary they turn into signing bonus.
What Is Next?
I think the next thing on the plate should be getting Micah Parsons locked up, and focus on who they are going to take in the NFL draft a little over a month.
If they can get Parsons locked up, and all these contracts and moves out of the way early, it will allow them to focus on the task at hand.
This is the first offseason in God knows how long that this front office has actually gotten out in front of things and taken care of business. That never happens.
They always wait till the last minute to do things. Jerry Jones always speaks to the media, and he declined all of those at the NFL combine, and we all thought it was just a fake stunt.
Yet since then, he got the Osa deal done and opened up all this cap space with the CeeDee Lamb contract.
Look for Dak to be next and then maybe we can start thinking that he and Stephen might want to finally win some games.
I still think they need to add a few pieces via free agency outside of the draft, and from it looks like from right now on March 4th, Jerry is finally starting to maybe do something.