On most teams, Osa Odighizuwa would’ve already been extended. For the Dallas Cowboys, cap space is king, and their former third-round pick might be too costly for them to bring back. Last offseason, Nnamdi Madubuike received a contract worth nearly $25 million a season. Odighizuwa is the top defensive tackle scheduled to hit the market, and it’s expected he will receive a contract along those same lines.

Dallas already has the claim to paying both the highest QB salary, as well as , with Micah Parsons likely to be the highest-paid non-QB when he signs his deal. The Cowboys must be sure they are getting what they pay for when they sign any other player to a top-end contract.

The team needs to compare what Odighizuwa has done to other players paid in that range. Derrick Brown and Alim McNeil were injured this season, and Quinnen Williams lost his coach early on. Still, Dexter Lawrence, Jeffery Simmons, DeForest Buckner, and Madubuike all make between 21 and 25 million on average per season, so how does Odighizuwa match up?

In the analytics department, Odighizuwa is as good as any defensive tackle in football. Over the last two seasons, he averaged 11.5 QB hits, 35 hurries, and 51.5 pressures. Buckner, Madubuike, Simmons, and Lawrence averaged 6.5 QB hits, 29 hurries, and 43 pressures in the previous four seasons.

Odighizuwa doesn’t have the production metrics of those four, though, trailing them significantly in sacks, tackles for loss and stops, despite them averaging 60 fewer snaps per season than he does.

If that were the most significant difference between Odighizuwa and other top defensive tackles, the decision to pay him would be no problem, but other things separate him as well.

Pro Football Focus (PFF) grades Odighizuwa lower overall. Their overall grades were mostly over 80, and he was 68.1. His pass rush grade was slightly higher, 78.5 to 77.5, but he fell off entirely in run defense. They combined for a 73.4 grade; Odighizuwa’s was only 50.8. Odighizuwa has an average missed tackle rate of 15% over the previous two years, including 17.4% in 2024, while they have a 6.1% rate.

In addition to considering fit with whomever ends up in charge of their defense, Dallas must weigh Odighizuwa’s ability to win at the line of scrimmage and impact the opposing quarterback better than most interior pass rusher in the NFL. Will that lead to more production as he hits his prime, or will the production as a pass rusher never come to fruition, combined with a lack of run defense?

You can find Mike Crum on Twitter @cdpiglet or Bluesky @mike-crum-cdpiglet.bsky.social