Cowboys recent trades highlight poor coaching mistakes last season
The Dallas Cowboys made a pair of trades on Wednesday, but unlike their previous trade this week to bring in defensive lineman Rashan Gary, both of these latest trades involved the Cowboys trading away defensive linemen and receiving draft compensation instead. More specifically, the Cowboys traded away a pair of defensive tackles in Osa Odighizuwa and Solomon Thomas that started a combined 15 games in 2025.
Dallas trading away from a position of strength to address their positions of need was always in the cards as a possibility this offseason. Before reality could set in that defensive tackle was one such position after such an extended time where the Cowboys were perpetually undermanned there, the Cowboys parting with two rotational interior linemen has many fans worried they’ve swung the pendulum too far in the opposite direction.
The rumblings that in some way, shape, or form, last offseason’s priority re-signing in Odighizuwa could be the most notable ‘odd man out’ from the Cowboys transitioning to a 3-4 defense under Christian Parker compared to last year’s 4-3 with Matt Eberflus were already in place prior to being traded to the 49ers.
New defensive coordinator Christian Parker brings a new scheme to Dallas, and how Odighizuwa fits will loom large in their decision-making. For starters, a transition to a straight 3-4 defensive front makes Odighizuwa a fish out of water. He’s undersized for a 4i defense end, nor does he possess the traits of an outside linebacker on the edge.
Parker also asks his defensive ends to use gap-and-a-half principles, where he’ll be asked to hold at the point of attack and read the play before reacting. Osa is a pass-rushing 3-tech. He has a quick first step and is a one-gap penetrator. Odighizuwa is an effective pass-rushing defensive tackle, but isn’t a stout run defender. For a defense that wants to roll with lighter boxes, its defensive tackles must be capable of handling their run game assignments.
How Odighizuwa fits into the new scheme is an important consideration, especially given his cost. It would be great to keep him on the team, but not as an overpriced rotational player with a reduced role on the defense. After several big trades, the Cowboys are now handing out big chunks of cash to several players, so they need to be smart about where this money is being allocated.
The Cowboys received a third-round pick from the San Francisco 49ers in the deal, bringing their total number of top-100 picks in this year’s draft to three. The Cowboys still hold the 12th and 20th overall picks in the first round, still are without a second-round pick, and now have a third-round choice thanks to the 49ers. This compensation still does not tell the full story of the changes the Cowboys are going through defensively though.
Odighizuwa landed back with last year’s one-and-done defensive coordinator for the Cowboys in Matt Eberflus, who is now the 49ers assistant head coach of defense.
The Solomon Thomas trade, where the Cowboys also gave the Tennessee Titans a seventh-round pick and received the Titans’ seventh-rounder in return, also follows a similar script. Thomas played for head coach Robert Saleh and defensive line coach Aaron Whitecotton for the New York Jets prior to joining the Cowboys, where he was also coached by Whitecotton, who now along with Saleh are both reunited with the Titans.
Zoom out even further around the league and this type of transaction is common place. Within the Cowboys own division, the New York Giants have been busy bringing in a flock of former Baltimore Ravens under former Ravens and current Giants head coach John Harbaugh. Former Cowboys running back Rico Dowdle is back with Mike McCarthy with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Malik Willis was a significant domino to fall in the quarterback market, following former Packers coach Jeff Hafley to Miami where Hafley is now the Dolphins head coach.
All of this is to say that while the Cowboys have earned their fair share of praise for some coaching hires under HC Brian Schottenheimer, most recently choosing Parker as DC and allowing him the autonomy to build his staff. The outlying move from a year ago to hire the safe, familiar face to the organization in Eberflus is still going to hold them back in how quickly they can actually rebuild thatside of the ball. Having Mike Zimmer as defensive coordinator the season before Eberflus can be considered an extension of this same issue that’s only compounded it further. In the wildly fast-paced National Football League, not all mistakes are created equal, and the Cowboys defensive mistakes when it comes to recent coaching hires are creating a seismic lasting impact.
While other teams are using either their coaching continuity or, at very least, the connections to players their coaches have that are best forged through years of experience, the Cowboys have put themselves in no position to benefit from either of these on defense ever since Dan Quinn’s departure for the Commanders head coaching job.
Obviously, just because both Odighizuwa and Thomas have strong ties to the teams they were traded to does not mean the Cowboys had to part with them, as both were still under contract. But it also stands to reason that these connections helped put Odighizuwa on the 49ers radar and Thomas on the Titans’, helping the Cowboys get compensation for players that Parker apparently does not see as fits.
The only defensive tackle the Cowboys have added this offseason to provide insight into what Parker is looking for at the position is Otito Ogbonnia, a true nose tackle that came over from the Los Angeles Chargers. Rashan Gary as a pass rushing addition also stands out as more of the 3-4 linebacker type that will have rush responsibilities in Parker’s scheme compared to the types of traditional, hand-in-the-ground defensive ends the Cowboys would have targeted in the past with other 4-3 coordinators.
If these moves stand as the only personnel acquisitions in the front seven that show the Cowboys are going to give Parker the time to build this defense in his image, that general premise is a good one. Still, the overall sense of urgency falls well short of matching where this team should be on defense to catch up to an offense with so many stars on big contracts and top-paid QB that’s been on the outside looking in at the playoffs for two consecutive seasons. Even the idea of playing Odighizuwa and Thomas as scheme misfits and allowing their talent to compensate for it the best it can was a more comforting idea for some fans than now having neither on the roster with no players in return in either trade. There are concerns along the front seven going into a draft where the secondary was always going to be a priority as a position group still with glaring needs.
The 2025 Cowboys defensive experience with Eberflus was an abject failure, a brutal way to create yet another lost season for an offense that played well, and something that left the team no choice but to move on swiftly after one season. At this junction of the 2026 offseason though, it feels like some of the doldrums this experience created have yet to be realized, the scope of the defensive rebuild needed is larger than what the Cowboys can fully achieve before week one of this season, and this team’s path to victory will again be lopsidedly dependent on one side of the ball compared to the other.
Names like Trey Hendrickson and Bradley Chubb both also came off the available free agent board on Wednesday, pushing the Cowboys further into their old ways of needing to sell mid-tier acquisitions as star-level moves. These moves will carry the unfair expectation of creating a defensive turnaround that has a serious lack of name brand, blue-chip players to rally around at the moment, in the absence of both Odighizuwa and Thomas.
Even if the Cowboys are content to line up with Quinnen Williams, Kenny Clark, and Ogbonnia as the defensive tackles that will have to eat up the majority of snaps, the depth behind these scheme-friendly players was an asset they could have used following the addition of Rashan Gary to round out their EDGE group. Coming away with only the unrealized potential of draft picks in a draft where premier pass rush talent is expected to be off the board by the 12th overall pick Dallas holds has painted the Cowboys into a corner that fans will understandably have little patience to watch them get out of.
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