Cowboys invested in $80 million player, but not much else at defensive tackle for 2025

USA Today

3 days ago

While edge rushers will be in abundance on the Dallas Cowboys' 2025 roster, defensive tackle is the exact opposite. Osa Odighizuwa is the only high-level starter at the position while everyone else is an unknown. The issue the Cowboys have to figure out is how to fill the tackle spot with players who can impact games, while not losing better players off the edge.
Defensive tackle could end up augmented by someone not currently on the team, as they have done recently in adding All-UFL DT, Perrion Winfrey, to add depth to the position, another player could come in to solidify it.
Odighizuwa is a top-five pass-rushing DT in the league, as he was third in total pressures behind Zach Allen and Chris Jones. A final step up to star status would take turning pressures into sacks. Solomon Thomas is locked in as his backup after Whitecotton battled to bring him in after their time together with the New York Jets. He's in incredible shape and has impressed the team with his character and leadership.
Mazi Smith will make the team, and if the roster remains unchanged, he will start next to Odighizuwa. He hasn't lived up to his draft status in his first two seasons, but he had flashes in 2024, quality play that was non-existent in his rookie campaign. If Smith can consistently be the player he was from Week 10 through Week 15, he will be a solid starter, and that could unlock the entire defensive line.
Jay Toia was drafted in hopes he can become the run-game wrecker Smith was supposed to be. The position typically takes a few years, so his role as a rookie is challenging to define. Does he have the strength to hold up to a double team week after week at the NFL level? Does he have the explosiveness and ability to add anything as a pressure player?
Nobody beyond those four is likely to make the 53-man roster. Winfrey has potential as a pass rusher, but it has been a long time since he garnered NFL-worthy praise at the Senior Bowl. Denzel Daxon, Tommy Akingbesote, and Earnest Brown IV will battle higher-potential defensive ends for a spot on the 53-man roster, but they are all long shots.
Daxon isn't the type of tackle Eberflus typically depends on.; 6-foot-2, 335 pounds and doesn't offer playmaking ability behind the line of scrimmage. He had one sack and two tackles for a loss in three seasons in college. The previous regime drafted him, so he has no sponsor in the room to battle for him, but the IPP will allow him to stick on the practice squad without costing anyone else a spot. Brown IV is a defensive end who Dallas is transitioning to a defensive tackle. He is a 6-foot-5, 300-pound player, so the size is there, and Akingbesote is a seventh-round draft pick whom Eberflus and Whitecotton will look to develop.