The Dallas Cowboys have made an embarrassment of themselves in recent years with their mistakes in contract negotiations, letting WR CeeDee Lamb and QB Dak Prescott both get above-market deals when it wasn't necessary.
Jerry Jones has long been a poor negotiator, yet it's become increasingly harmful to the organization in recent years. His stubbornness is far from a virtue, which is becoming increasingly obvious with each new player's attempt at an extension.
Unfortunately for both Jones and Cowboys fans, it doesn't look like Jones will ever learn from his mistakes.
Osa Odighizuwa had a 96th-percentile pass-rush win rate in 2024 (15.1%) via PFF.
— Marcus Mosher (@Marcus_Mosher) February 27, 2025
Fourth-best among qualifying DTs. https://t.co/lCv8ckCGbg
Cowboys Making Another Big Free Agency Mistake After Recent Mishaps
In a new piece by David Moore of The Dallas News, the Cowboys have begun conversations with DT Osa Odighizuwa after a stellar campaign. He was one of the NFL's best interior defensive linemen and a lone bright spot, but it sounds like the organization waited too long to consider an extension and are now paying the price.
"It’s a tool," Stephen Jones said in reference to a potential franchise tag on Odighizuwa. “It’s something we haven’t ruled out using."
As things stand, Odighizuwa carries a cap hit of less than $4 million in 2025. If the Cowboys applied the franchise tag, that number would balloon to $23.4 million. Any kind of extension would benefit both sides, yet Jones' penchant for waiting until the last possible moment is rearing its ugly head. It's already too late to get Odighizuwa at a discount, so now the front office is just trying to minimize its losses.
That's a familiar tale and another example of why either Jerry Jones or Stephen Jones isn't fit to run a business, let alone an NFL team. If you're constantly behind the market, you probably don't have much to offer. That's been the case for too many years and Odighizuwa's situation proves it.
In all likelihood, Dallas will pay more than it needs to. It can't afford to let Odighizuwa go, but it also can't afford to pay him $23.4 million.
This is a sad day for Cowboys fans, yet it's become all too familiar under the current regime.