Inside The Star
It’s the season of giving, but as we look toward the end of the 2024 season, it’s important to remember that the Cowboys’ offseason plans won’t give fans much to unwrap. Stephen Jones has already admitted this fact.
We saw this happen last free agency, as Dallas delayed giving out extensions, costing themselves the cap space to pursue players.
Make no mistake about it: the Cowboys could clear up a ton of cap space very easily, but they won’t do it because they aren’t a top-notch front office, and the moves they would have to make would take some effort.
https://twitter.com/WhatGoingDowney/status/1866958648288923935 What does this mean for the 2025 offseason? Some tough choices will have to be made, and we already know the biggest one.
The Cowboys offseason will come down to which of their two emerging defensive stars they bring back. They should have the money for one of them, but both are unlikely. Let’s discuss these guys and their case for a new deal.
For the entirety of Jourdan Lewis’ Cowboys career, he has been viewed as a reliable, “solid” slot cornerback who benefits the defense at a low contractual cost. In 2024, Lewis shed that narrative and emerged as a potential Pro Bowl selection.
His eighth NFL season has been one of his best, as he’s matched his career high in tackles, recorded a sack, broken up seven passes, and snagged a critical interception in Week 16.
Aside from the stats we can read on paper, it’s the outstanding coverage ability that has made Lewis’ season fantastic.
https://twitter.com/DannyPhantom24/status/1871218468890325172 In a season of defensive struggles and injuries, Lewis has become completely indispensable to the unit; you could even say he’s carrying the secondary right now.
Luckily for Lewis, this career year has lined up with the final year of his contract. He will head into this Cowboys offseason needing a new deal, and he has plenty of room to ask for a significant raise.
He’s making just over $2.5M this year, but that same discount will not be afforded to Dallas in 2025. He has outplayed his salary.
With Trevon Diggs out indefinitely with his second knee surgery, DaRon Bland slowly working himself back, and minimal bright lights in the rest of the cornerback room, you can make a strong argument that Lewis should be the top priority to extend.
If you’ve been paying attention, you have seen that Cowboys Defensive Tackle, Osa Odighizuwa, has been slowly breaking out his entire career.
Originally a 2021 third-round pick out of UCLA, Odighizuwa came in showing flashes, as his numbers consistently improved year after year. In 2024, those numbers have completely exploded, and he is playing his best football yet.
In 2021 and 2022, he had 11 quarterbacks. That rose to 13 in 2023, but this season, Odighizuwa already has 23. That is an absurd number for a defensive tackle.
https://twitter.com/BobbyBeltTX/status/1868650469129925046 He has also tied his...
