Blogging The Boys
The big man in the middle for the Cowboys
It didn’t take long to connect the dots. Shortly after Matt Eberflus was officially announced as the new defensive coordinator in Dallas, defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa became the team’s most important pending free agent due to the importance of the 3-technique in Eberflus’ scheme.
Just barely over a month later, Odighizuwa had signed a contract extension, staying with the Cowboys for the next four years. Since then, he’s shown up for OTA’s and minicamp practices looking leaner and meaner than ever.
Odighizuwa makes a lot of sense in the Cowboys’ new defensive scheme. Eberflus, himself a disciple of Rod Marinelli and the historic Tampa 2 defense, builds his entire scheme around the 3-technique. It requires an athletic disruptor who can penetrate and wreak havoc for the quarterback.
Odighizuwa has fit that description for his entire career, and he seems to be a perfect fit in this new role. John Owning of Pro Football Focus explained in further detail why Odighizuwa should be an even better fit with Eberflus than he ever was with Mike Zimmer.
To sum up Owning’s point, Zimmer’s scheme did not ask Odighizuwa to be a straight up disruptor as often. Due to the complexity of Zimmer’s schemes, Odighizuwa was often tasked with a variety of other responsibilities in addition to “see ball, get ball.”
Odighizuwa wasn’t even a bad fit for Zimmer, either. He recorded seven sacks, 60 pressures, and 30 run stops according to Pro Football Focus, all of which are career bests for him. Despite not operating solely as a gap penetrator, Odighizuwa blew his previous pass rushing high marks - four sacks and 43 pressures - out of the water.
Still, attacking his gap and exploding into the backfield is the thing Odighizuwa does best, and he’ll be doing an awful lot of it with Eberflus in town. His pass rush win rate of 15.1% in 2024 ranked third-best in the league among interior defenders, behind only John Franklin-Myers and Chris Jones.
Imagine how much more effective Odighizuwa can be in a role that frees him up to exclusively hunt the quarterback.
Soon, we won’t have to imagine. Odighizuwa’s play style fits Eberflus like a glove, and given that he’s coming off a career best year while playing in a scheme that wasn’t exactly the best fit, it’s hard to temper expectations.
For comparison’s sake, look at DeForest Buckner, who manned the 3-technique role for Eberflus in Indianapolis. From 2020 to 2022, Buckner topped 50 pressures and nine sacks every single year; he was also top 10 in pass rush win rate for defensive tackles each season.
The Cowboys haven’t had an interior pass rushing presence that dominant in quite some time. In fact, the last time the team had an interior defender top 50 pressures and nine sacks in a season was Jason Hatcher’s breakout year in 2013, after which he immediately left in free agency for a division rival.
Odighizuwa seems destined...
