The Dallas Cowboys shocked us all on Tuesday afternoon and obtained a long-term deal finished with defensive deal with Osa Odighizuwa. They beat the franchise tag deadline with sufficient time for a spherical of golf, even!
Finally it’s a four-year, $80M deal for Odighizuwa. $58M is assured and there’s a $20M signing bonus. These numbers are massive, being so near the open market can have that impression, however they fall under what projections have been simply a few weeks in the past as most shops thought that he would common $21M per yr.
Clearly the assure is excessive and so is the signing bonus, however it seems like we will allot this to Odighizuwa’s workforce having leverage by the use of what this and subsequent yr’s franchise tag values may or would have been for him. The Cowboys paid a bit within the right here and now, however they nonetheless got here in south of these.
Two franchise tags would’ve value the #Cowboys $55.27 million in money and cap area over the subsequent two years. As an alternative, they keep one of many high two would-be free agent DTs at $80M over 4 years. Safety for Odighizuwa and suppleness for Dallas. https://t.co/bkHRiIvLup
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) March 4, 2025
As NFL Community’s Tom Pelissero notes, the Cowboys have been up in opposition to what may have been argued as a two-year, $55.27M ($27.6M per) deal that was totally assured as a result of they’d have been franchise tag values. Dallas in the end got here in properly under that determine with a $20M annual common worth for Odighizuwa. Upping the ensures and signing bonus needed to have made that price it in Odighizuwa’s estimation.
What’s extra about this entire concept is that these values would have counted totally on the workforce’s wage cap for this and subsequent yr (not from AAV standpoint, however in a literal one… in the end you’ll be able to approximate it the identical, although). By getting issues finished within the hear and now and structuring the deal how they need to, as Todd Archer notes under, the Cowboys can manipulate the wage cap ramifications the best way that they need.
Had the Cowboys used the tag on Odighizuwa, he would have counted $25m vs. cap. With the $20m bonus and a low base wage, search for the ’25 cap quantity to be someplace near $6m (+/-) when the official numbers roll in. Will assist the “selectively aggressive,” strategy in FA. https://t.co/RaGpLvuyb6
— Todd Archer (@toddarcher) March 4, 2025
All advised there are a ton of professionals to getting this finished. Clearly the Cowboys keep away from having to make use of the franchise tag and the fallout from that which we simply mentioned, however in addition they rewarded a homegrown participant and did so with out the drama of the franchise tag which has not precisely been how they’ve operated in recent times.
You possibly can definitely nonetheless argue that defensive deal with continues to be a necessity within the NFL draft, however by retaining Odighizuwa across the depth of it’s not as massive (neither is the accountability that will have utterly fallen on Mazi Smith). Past all of this, the Cowboys get to maintain a extremely good participant! Odighizuwa was wonderful final season and may thrive underneath new defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus.
This actually seems like one of the crucial optimistic issues that the Cowboys entrance workplace has finished in a while. They flew somewhat near the solar, however they in the end did some authentic work and needs to be happy with themselves. Now let’s see some extra.
