The time is almost here for the Dallas Cowboys to make one of their most urgent decisions of the offseason
The Dallas Cowboys have plenty of offseason tasks to take care of.They must find a way to improve in free agency even if they don't want to become big spenders. They have to take care of re-signing pending free agents such as Jourdan Lewis, Chauncey Golston, Rico Dowdle and others. Down the road, they have […]
The Dallas Cowboys have plenty of offseason tasks to take care of.
They must find a way to improve in free agency even if they don't want to become big spenders. They have to take care of re-signing pending free agents such as Jourdan Lewis, Chauncey Golston, Rico Dowdle and others. Down the road, they have to figure out who will be the pick when they go on the clock at No. 12 overall in April's NFL Draft.
But before all that comes a much more urgent decision: To franchise tag or not to franchise tag Osa Odighizuwa?
On Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. ET, the window for NFL teams to designate a franchise player will open. The Cowboys would be allowed to place a franchise tag on Odighizuwa between Tuesday and March 4th.
The franchise tag is a one-year contract NFL teams are allowed to use once per year. It's a fully guaranteed deal with a predetermined amount based on the top salaries in the league for the position of the player. It's a powerful tool for front offices as it doesn't have to be negotiated and the player can't escape it. There are no-exclusive and exclusive tags, with the former being the most common one.
What a "no-exclusive tag" entails is that it allows players to negotiate with other teams after being tagged. However, the tagging team gets a chance to match the offer the player gets and in the case it doesn't match it, the acquiring team hands over two first-round draft picks in exchange.
Odighizuwa is a prime candidate for the tag as the Cowboys should seriously attempt to keep him on the roster. He's a top-tier three-technique and with Matt Eberflus taking over the defense, his role at defensive tackle is crucial for the defensive line. Losing him would make what's already a significant weakness an even worse one.
However, Osa knows the defensive tackle market has been booming in recent years, with the highest-paid player at the position making $31.75M per year (Chris Jones. It won't be easy to agree to a long-term extension with Odighizuwa while balancing a Micah Parsons' future extension and Dak Prescott's and CeeDee Lamb's deals from last year. Doable, yes. But it will be a challenge.
As such, placing the tag on Odighizuwa makes sense. Over the Cap projects the DT tag to cost $23.46 million. Since it's fully guaranteed, that number is the cap hit as well.
Once a player is tagged, he can still negotiate an extension with the team through July 15. In other words, the franchise tag can be used as a way to buy more time in negotiations.
But the first step is deciding if they want Odighizuwa back. If so, expect Dallas to place the franchise tag on him and aim for a long-term negotiation later in the year. To do, contract restructures for Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb would free up more than the necessary cap space.
Former Dallas Cowboys player once unexpectedly ousted makes almost too much sense as a free agent target
They should pull the trigger.
