SHOCKER: Dallas Cowboys Trade Osa Odigizuwa To 49ers | What's The Plan To Improve Defense???

Summary

Locked On Cowboys Podcast

Episode: SHOCKER: Dallas Cowboys Trade Osa Odigizuwa To 49ers | What's The Plan To Improve Defense???

Hosts: Marcus Mosher & Landon McCool
Date: March 12, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into the stunning trade of Dallas Cowboys defensive tackle Osa Odigizuwa to the San Francisco 49ers for a late 3rd round pick, examining the reasons behind the move, how it impacts the Cowboys’ defense, and what the team's strategy might be going forward. The hosts discuss the context, fan reactions, resulting roster holes, and options in both free agency and the draft.

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Key Discussion Points

1. The Osa Odigizuwa Trade: Details & Immediate Reactions

• Trade Terms: Osa Odigizuwa to the 49ers for the 92nd pick (late third round) in the NFL Draft. Cowboys save $4.5M this year but incur a $16M dead cap hit, having extended Osa just a year prior.

• Initial Feelings: Both hosts express frustration with the return value and destination, emphasizing Osa's fit and recent performance.

  “They should have probably... gotten more value out of this. This is also one of the situations where they didn't have a lot of great choices... But I think this does suck for the Cowboys.”
  — Landon McCool (06:04)

  “I hate that he's going to the 49ers. That's the other part of this that sucks. It's a perfect situation for him on a team that the Cowboys play this year and are going to have to contend with.”
  — Marcus Mosher (05:55)

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2. Why the Trade Happened

• Reported Discontent: Whispers from the combine suggested Osa was unhappy with changes in the defensive scheme and wanted to leave.

• Scheme Fit Debate: Hosts disagree with the narrative that Osa was a poor scheme fit, arguing he was still a starter and productive disruptor, even if the system changed roles and expectations.

  “OSA was going to start in this defense a week ago. He was going to be one of your four eyes. ...I think they just came to the decision that it's probably too much having three defensive tackles that are making 20 plus million.”
  — Marcus Mosher (04:49)

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3. Assessment of Trade Value and Impact

• Return Value Skepticism:

  “Getting a third round pick back for him, especially 92, probably isn't the value that you were, you should have gotten for the guy.”
  — Landon McCool (05:23)

• Cap Implications: $16 million in dead cap, plus loss of a productive, durable interior rusher.

• Locker Room Loss: Both Osa and Solomon Thomas (also traded) were considered strong leaders.

  “Who he is as a person and what effect he had on the players around him, I think that's going to be hard to replace, to be honest.”
  — Landon McCool (10:43)

• Production & Durability:

  “He was third in the NFL in QB hits... one of the top guys in pass rush win rate... He's only missed one game in his NFL career and that's as a rookie.”
  — Marcus Mosher (06:24, 09:40)

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4. Other Defensive Line Moves and Resulting Roster Holes

• Solomon Thomas to the Titans: Traded for a minor Day 3 pick swap, saving $2M cap.

  “He overperformed all of our expectations... but... maybe not the same kind of fit [in new scheme].”
  — Landon McCool (14:03)

• Other Departures: Perry on Winfrey released recently.

• Current Depth: Kenny Clark, Quinnen Williams, Jay Toya, Otito Ogbonnia—significant experience gap and pass rush drop-off.

  “Suddenly they have no depth at defensive tackle... They need a ton of reinforcements now on the defensive line.”
  — Marcus Mosher (15:04)

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5. Cowboys' Strategy: Rebuilding the Defensive Line

• Free Agency Options:

  “They just need bodies... You can probably get a veteran on a... cheap deal and see if you take a chance there or Calais Campbell come here and play like, you know, 25 snaps a game.”
  — Marcus Mosher & Landon McCool (16:24)

• Rookie Dependence and Draft Capital:

  “That's just putting a lot of pressure on your rookies to come in and play well.”
  — Marcus Mosher (17:10)

• Positional Needs: DT, CB, LB, Edge

• Draft Approach: Trading back to accumulate more picks is emphasized as a way to address multiple needs.

  “They have to trade back at least once from 12 to 20... The only way they're going to actually get better on defense is by adding a bunch of depth and a bunch of young players.”
  — Marcus Mosher (24:47)

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6. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Osa’s Upside:

  “He's 27 and this is a position that typically ages really well. ...I won't be surprised if his best football is still ahead of him.”
  — Marcus Mosher (09:40)

• On Team-Building Philosophy:

  “If I was to lay out a plan to make Cowboys feel better about how they could get to a spot where they would be a little bit more set up, I think it would be that, hey, they add maybe two, three more guys who maybe aren't... starters, maybe like a defensive tackle, but the other two guys are reliable veteran presences who when paired with a rookie, gives you a solid base at those positions.”
  — Landon McCool (27:17)

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Timestamps + Key Segments

• [01:05] — Show opens: Osa Odigizuwa trade announcement & first reactions
• [02:46–06:24] — Behind the trade: Osa’s fit, internal discontent, cap situation, response to criticism
• [06:24–11:17] — Assessing Osa’s value, performance stats, leadership, and Cowboys' new defensive tackle hole
• [13:10] — Moving Solomon Thomas for a 7th round pick swap, Cowboys’ shrinking DT depth
• [15:53] — Defensive line depth chart, naming available free agents, importance of getting low-cost contributors
• [16:54–21:00] — Defensive roster needs, pressure on rookies, how to address multiple open roster spots
• [22:42–28:03] — Draft strategy: trade backs, targeting defensive tackles with upside, balancing free agency stopgaps vs. long-term talent
• [28:03–end] — Summing up needs post-free agency and Osa/Thomas deals: “They need to find five to seven of those guys. They have three draft picks. Can you find two to three more guys in free agency before we get to the draft?” — Marcus Mosher (28:03)

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Final Thoughts

• The Osa Odigizuwa trade was driven by a mix of player dissatisfaction, scheme shifts, and cap management, but left the Cowboys thin at defensive tackle and without ideal compensation.
• Both hosts agree that the defense still has glaring needs—especially after trading away two solid contributors—and must turn to modest veteran free agent signings and a focused draft strategy.
• The front office is under pressure to smartly identify affordable role players and maximize their draft capital, possibly via trade backs, to re-fortify a unit that's trending in the wrong direction post-trade.
• Leadership and continuity are also cited as intangible losses that cannot be easily replaced.

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For Listeners Who Missed the Episode

This summary provides a full breakdown and direct host insights on the shock trade, the front office’s rationale, the resulting roster needs, and actionable team-building options going forward. If you want the pulse of informed Cowboys reaction and smart analysis of how to get the defense back on track, this is your guide.

Transcript

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[Marcus Moser]

Arby's. We have the meats and participating Arby's. For a limited time, the Dallas Cowboys have traded OSA Odigizua. We'll tell you what that means for their defense and any upcoming moves that could happen because of it next. You are Locked On Cowboys, your daily Dallas Cowboys podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast network. Your team every day. Welcome back to the Locked On Cowboys Podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast network. Your team every day. We'd like to thank you for making us the number one sports podcast network. And today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. FanDuel is giving you a way to turn that energy into an even bigger payout with with college basketball parlay profit boost. Head over to FanDuel.com to get started. Welcome back. I am your host, Marcus Moser. He is Landon McCool. And on today's show, we're going to be talking about two, I was going to say somewhat surprising trades on the defensive line, although one of them we've known was a possibility for a while. And we'll talk about what's next for the Cowboys defense, but let's start with the big one here, Landon. The Cowboys have traded Osa Odigizua to the San Francisco 49ers for the 92nd pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. That is a late third rounder. The Cowboys only save four and a half million against the cap. They actually have a $16 million dead cap hit after signing Osa to a big deal just a year ago. What are Your thoughts on the trade?

[Landon McCool]

Well, we had heard some whispers, you know, probably a week prior, maybe not even a week prior, but just. It seems like a week because of this. How free agency stretches, right?

[Marcus Moser]

Well, we actually heard it at the combine. We heard some rumble.

[Landon McCool]

That's fair. Yeah, it was the combine. Yeah, yeah. That. That OSA was potentially not thrilled about the situation with the change in defense and that he was looking to get out and we weren't sure exactly how much of that was true. You know, there's always so much of this that the things that you hear that, that don't ever come to fruition. Then we started to see more people in the media talking about it. It definitely kind of came up more and more and I, I have to think that if we're hearing it this loudly at this point and, you know, agents are talking to media members to kind of let it out, that it's pretty serious. So I, I kind of think the Cowboys got put in a bad situation here and, and, and they had to make a decision where they probably needed to kind of figure out a way to exit this situation quickly.

[Marcus Moser]

Can we start with that? Because I think that's fascinating because you and I have talked about Osis fit in this defense and yeah, we actually thought he fit well because he's going to be an up the field player. Maybe OSA didn't feel quite the same or OSA and his agent didn't feel the same. They wanted him to be in more of a traditional 4:3 defense, like what Sam or San Francisco runs, where he can just focus on getting up to the upfield and getting to the quarterback. I, I just vehemently disagree with everybody that says he wasn't a fit in Christian Parker's defense. I think he was. But I do think there's defenses that were better fits for him.

[Landon McCool]

I mean, for what we've heard. I think Christian Parker thought so as well. I mean, he made. Part of his presentation was about a plan to use all three of these guys. So yeah, I mean, I think that this wasn't a case where they, I mean, if they, you know, I think that if, if it wasn't a case for desperation, like, then why did they end up doing this the way it ended up happening? Right.

[Marcus Moser]

And the other part of this is, and I'm seeing this all on Twitter, it's that, well, OSA was a backup, he wasn't going to be a starter, and it was too much money to have for a backup rotational defensive lineman. And that's just not True. Like OSA was going to start in this defense a week ago. Right. He was going to be one of your four eyes. With Kenny Clark likely being the nose tackle, Quinn Williams being more of the three technique here. He was going to start. I, I think they just came to the decision that it's probably too much having redefensive tackles that are making 20 plus million.

[Landon McCool]

Yeah. And, and I think they had plans to, you know, they, and they have moved around some of the money as well with Kenny Clark. But so I think it was, it just was a lot of different things. And ultimately the fact that he desperately wanted to leave, I think it kind of forced their hand and that's why they ended up having to do a deal which again, the deal sucks. Like, I hate it because I love Osa and I think getting a third round pick back for him, especially 92, probably isn't the value that you were, you should have gotten for the guy.

[Marcus Moser]

And I hate that he's going to the 49ers. That's the other part of the stocks. It's a perfect situation for him on a team that the Cowboys play this year and are going to have to contend with.

[Landon McCool]

And the Cowboys are taking a $16 million dead cap hit like they should have probably, they should have gotten more value out of this. I think this is also one of the situations where they didn't have a lot of great choices. So it's, I don't, I don't blame them for this necessarily because I think they were probably dealt a bad hand. But I think this does suck for the Cowboys. Absolutely.

[Marcus Moser]

And, and I know there are people right now that are looking hopefully not locked on Cowboy listeners because you guys are incredibly smart. So I know that you guys don't just look at the sack totals, so totals and judge defensive tackles that way. But I believe he was third in the NFL in QB hits. He was one of the top guys in pass rush win rate. And I mean, listen, I get the production dropped because they thought they were going to have Micah Parsons at the start of the year. He leaves, there's nobody else to take any attention off of osa. He becomes the primary guy that gets double teams. He actually had the most pressures among double team defensive tackles last year. So he was still producing. But maybe it wasn't the big sack totals that everybody expected. And that's how you get bumped out of here and that's how you, you know, that's why I think some fans started to turn on him. It's really unfortunate and the other issue is now Landon, they have a hole to fill. Now. This is a spot that's a little bit easier to fill because you're looking for, you know, maybe a guy that can play 15, 20 snaps or maybe you're looking for two guys. But going into, you know, Wednesday, I would have said that Oso Digizua was your, what, third best player on defense at worst, probably, and just didn't know this defense was in a position given their talent level to let players like that out the door.

[Landon McCool]

I, I think an argument could be made that it was a luxury to have a guy like OSA Odigizua play the position that he's going to be playing in this defense. And in the previous defense, he was the engine of the defense. Even with Micah Parsons. Those defenses are built around having a three technique that can get up the field. Now that opens things up for the, your pass rusher, your pass rusher opens things up for the inside guy. But the key aspect of that, you know, last year's defense, the 4, 3 upfield kind of one gap scheme is having a three technique who can, is a good penetrator, right? His need, his importance in the defense is lessened in this defense and let's face it, I have to think his production is probably going to go down as well. But that doesn't mean that he simply because of the position and the, in the, in what's being asked of him. So, you know, it was great to have him. He was a good fit. In fact, he was almost too good a fit when you have other guys there with you. But, but that was just a force multiplier. It wasn't a negative. So I think what that means in turn is that replacing him isn't going to be as difficult as having to find someone as good as OSA Odigi Zoo to still have a solid defensive tackle there as your four eye like you. I think if I go and look at the free agent market, I see guys who I feel like can come in here and do this job. It's just that you're not going to have Oso Odigizua available to you on third downs when you can, you know, bring him in as a third down pass rusher when you're lining up at a 4, 2, 5 nickel front, right. So I just think that, you know, it's, it's a lot, it's less pass rush prowess. But if you're talking about replacing the player, you have two decent interior defensive linemen that can rush the passer and you really just need to go out and get a body who can be a solid four eye and base and rotational pass rushing piece.

[Marcus Moser]

I think the other part of this that really hurts, at least for me, is I'm a big OSA fan. I mean, I'm sure you can tell he's 27 and this is a position that typically ages really well. Like a lot of these defensive tackles, they don't start hitting their primes until they get to 27, 28 years old. So that part of it's hard because I won't be surprised if his best football is still ahead of him. And the other part of this is he's incredibly durable. He's only missed one game in his NFL career and that's as a rookie. And defensive tackle is a hard spot to be durable like that. His size, at his size. And usually these guys that are durable for the first five years of their career end up being durable for a long time. And even if you don't love the production or you think maybe he's a little overvalued at 20 million a year, having a guy that you know is going to play 16 to 17 games every single season is really, really valuable. And I just hate that the 49ers got him. That's, that's. The last part is I, I loved watching osa you and I loved him through the pre draft process.

[Landon McCool]

I mean, yeah, I, I was on OSA I think before anybody I know I loved OSA coming out of ucla. I always thought he was a steal. So this is, this hurts. There's no way around it. But I, I do think that this is one of those cases that because of his role, he was a extreme luxury. I just don't think he's going to be as difficult to replace in the base part of it. But the pass rush part, the locker room part, who he is as a person and what effect he had on the players around him, I think that's going to be hard to replace, to be honest.

[Marcus Moser]

Well, and that's another thing that we should talk about is you're losing two really good leaders, including Solomon Thomas, who the Cowboys also traded on Wednesday. We'll talk about that move next. Next. This episode is brought to you by FanDuel. College basketball is non stop. Big games, tight spreads, momentum swings every single night. From early tip offs to late night west coast shootouts, there's always action on the board. And now FanDuel is giving you a way to turn that energy into an even bigger potential win with a college Basketball parlay Profit boost. You can build any college hoops parlay that you want to rivalry games, ranked matchups, whatever fits your read. You could mix spreads, totals, player props to match how you see the slate playing out. Then you can apply the profit boost and instantly bump bump up the potential payout. So go safe. Go bold. Ride with the team that you've been following all season. It's your parlay, your style now with more upside behind it. Head over to FanDuel.com to get started. That's FanDuel.com FanDuel play your game. I'm Aaron Judge.

[Landon McCool]

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[Landon McCool]

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[Marcus Moser]

welcome back to the Lockdown Cowboys podcast. We'd like to thank you for making us your first listen. Every single day free agency is here. Someone tell the Cowboys and so are we get one month free of the everyday club with promo code Free agency no spaces now through March 15th. Go ad free and keep this conversation going on discord. Join the club @LocketedOn Cowboys Supercast.com all right. L. Let's talk about the other trade the Cowboys made. They moved Solomon Thomas to the Tennessee Titans for a pick swap in round seven. That moves them up, I believe, seven spots. This is basically the the least amount of compensation possible that you can get for a trade. The Cowboys do save about $2 million in cap space, which that's obviously the goal here for them in this trade.

[Landon McCool]

Yeah. And, and, and you know, look, of the guys that were on this in this group, I feel like Thomas was the one who probably fit the least. Right. He's just a little bit kind of undersized. I mean, he's, I think he's a great player, a great person. I love that we had him on the team last year. I thought that he was a great signing. You know, he overperformed all of our expectations. So, you know, if you're watching this and he went to Tennessee, right. If I'm not mistaken, Tennessee with Robert Salah.

[Marcus Moser]

Yep.

[Landon McCool]

So, yeah, that was going to Say. So anybody who's watching this, trying to figure out who, what the kind of guy they're getting from Solomon Thomas, really, really outstanding person, but also a guy who, who really outperformed what we expected of him. I say that he's probably still a very quality backup. Right. Like a really, you know, a reliable backup. But yeah, I think for the Cowboys maybe not the same kind of fit. Again, for all the angles that have changed with this defense and the roles that have changed, he might have been just, just a little bit undersized for this kind of thing.

[Marcus Moser]

I like Solomon Thomas. I don't necessarily disagree. I think he still could have given you decent snaps. He played really hard last year. I think what's fascinating is when you combine this trade with the Oso Digizua trade and then the Cowboys releasing Perry on Winfrey. Was that like a week ago, a week and a half ago, suddenly they have no depth at defensive tackle. Right. It's Jay Toya who looks pretty rough as a rookie. Double O now we can just say double O now that also the Cowboys, the Chargers. Yeah. Otito, Kenny Clark and Quinn and Williams. And you really only feel good about one and a half of those guys as pass rushers. The other two are pure nose tackles. Right. They need a ton of reinforcements now in the defensive line.

[Landon McCool]

Yeah. And I, I think that the ones that they need at this point, look, they need like we're not talking about edge rushes right now. We're talking about just defensive linemen at this point. As far as just defensive linemen, I don't think they need a lot of expensive pieces. They just need bodies. They need to go find guys who can give you, give you good snaps. Those guys are still very readily available on the market. So that's not going to necessarily be a problem. If you want to go get a talented player or talented person, you can probably get a veteran on a one on a cheap deal and see if you take a chance there or Clay

[Marcus Moser]

Campbell come here and play like, you know, 25 snaps a game.

[Landon McCool]

I mean, Candy, absolutely he could like, because apparently because he could play till he's 50 if he's going to. But yeah, I mean, I think like, you know, the Jonathan Allen's in the, the, the world that are still available and guys like that and you know, there's still guys that are there that can give you snaps at what you're asking them to do. So I think it's, it's still available to you. And then also, you know, you could draft a guy. I Mean, I certainly don't think that we can, we'll get to that out possibilities.

[Marcus Moser]

But I want to talk about that a second. We'll, we'll talk about that. I think if you're a Cowboy fan, one of the big concerns you had is like they already had needs at cornerback. We thought they might still be in the safety market just because Malik Hooker's on a one year deal.

[Landon McCool]

Right.

[Marcus Moser]

They obviously need at least one more linebacker and then you were hoping to grab probably what one more veteran edge rusher on top of a young edge rusher did you really need to create another, you know, another need? I think they would argue, well, we freed up cap space and we now have an, you know, an extra third round pick will be able to solve that. But that's just putting a lot of pressure on your rookies to come in and play well.

[Landon McCool]

Well, I, I think. First of all, let me clear something up real quick because it's been bugging me. OSA Adigizua is smaller than, than Solomon Thomas. It is. Or at least similarly sized. But, but they play a very different game.

[Marcus Moser]

Yeah. Well, it also's got really long arms and that.

[Landon McCool]

Yes. And the wrestling background that gives him a play, much better leverage play anyways. So I just want to say those, those guys play differently. Second of all, to answer your question, I think what they did is they changed the methodology of how they're going to solve this math problem. Because now the defensive tackle position like I've just suggested, that can be solved in free agency still. Linebacker, edge, corner, those may not be able to be as easily solved. And if you have to try to get all three, then you have to find a way to get another top 100 pick to, to even have any kind of chance to get the quality of player that you want to get at those specific positions. So in some ways they were using this as a way to give them the opportunity to solve one of these problems by proxy in free agency. By trading OSA giving themselves a top 100 pick. Now they can just solve the defensive tackle problem in free agency and they have another top 100 pick to potentially solve the equation of how do we get an edge rusher, a cornerback and a linebacker out of this draft. Again, I'm not promoting this draft. I mean the, the, the trade. I'm just presenting why that there's some math here that could make sense in trying to solve this equation.

[Marcus Moser]

I think the pro, the, the part that I'm struggling with is we are now officially what going on to day four of free agency and I honestly feel worse about the defense than I did at the end of last year. And some of it's not their fault. To be clear, they couldn't have predicted Duron Bland getting hurt. They couldn't have predicted Donovan as a rocku needing hip surgery. Like that's that that's not their fault. Right. I think the problem is when you missed out on the linebackers and again that they tried. So I will give them at least a little bit of credit for trying. And again, I know free agency is not over, but most of the top players have all been signed and you look at this depth chart compared to like week 14, 15, 16 last year and maybe it's slightly better but it's not noticeably better. And I know the draft is coming up, but anytime that you have to rely on rookies to be like your top players at edge, rusher and corner, that's when things get a little hairy.

[Landon McCool]

Yes. But I also think that like those it's not covered as bear situation with either Ed or corner. Right. Like you have solid veterans that are going to be playing week one for you, just not the elite talent that you want to have and especially a corner. I'm not as worried like if you know, I'm worried about the long term situation with corner. Right. Because I, I feel like hopefully you're going to have your guys back for week one. Maybe you can cobble together something, but you need talent for the long term. That's why you absolutely need to add corner depth. Right. I think Edge, it's like you have a little bit of grace built in because you have two starters already at edge that you know you could bring along the edge a little bit you are relying on. I'm not denying that. But I think it's not as the same situation as hey, I'm trying to draft edge one to come in here and be a 10 plus sack guy. That's not necessarily what you're looking for.

[Marcus Moser]

All right, let's talk about what's next for the Cowboys and what they might do via trades and via the draft. We'll get to that next. This episode is brought to you by TurboTax. It's tax time. But for a lot of us, the old ways of doing taxes is a lot. Trying to book an appointment that's not the most convenient. Sitting in a waiting waiting room with a stack of papers, emailing back and forth wondering if they really get your situation. But this year you're getting a major upgrade. Intuit TurboTax now has in person locations nationwide and you can meet face to face with a real tax expert and your documents get uploaded straight to your TurboTax app on the spot. And just like that, you're done. Your TurboTax expert works to get you every dollar that you deserve while you get real time notifications as you go about your day. It's the relief of walking in and meeting a real person and walking out knowing that your taxes are being handled right. Head over to turbotax.com local to find a store near you and book your appointment today.

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[Marcus Moser]

welcome back to the Locked On Cavalry podcast. We are discussing the Oso Digizu trade and my question for you is this. We we heard that the Cowboys did a lot of work on the defensive tackles at the NFL combine and we kind of, we talked, we talked about it, the show, it raised our eyebrows a little bit.

[Landon McCool]

Yeah.

[Marcus Moser]

Do you think this puts them in the conversation at 20 because there's not a defensive tackle at 12 for drafting, at least to me. We'll see about for them in the conversation of like, could Caden McDonald from Ohio State, who's really like a true nose tackle, could he be an option? Could they gamble on someone like Kayla Banks from Florida who is 6'6,330 pounds and is a freak of nature athletically? Is that suddenly an option for this team?

[Landon McCool]

Yeah, absolutely. I mean if the, if, if the fit is right, absolutely. I mean it, it probably doesn't play into it depends on what else is going on, right? Like they've still got, they do have four, they do have, they have, do have four different holes that they need to fill now instead of three. I think we said that one of them is very easily solvable in free agency. But let's say they pulled off the trade that we've been talking about, which now maybe even make more sense, a trade back from 12 to 21 with Pittsburgh in exchange for A guy like Nick Herbic, right?

[Marcus Moser]

Yeah.

[Landon McCool]

If they were able to pull something off like that, suddenly you feel great about your edge situation. At least, at least I would. And then you have the opportunity to use one of those picks on a guide like Banks or I mean McDonald would be a home run man. Like, like seriously, getting a guy like that, like would be, would be really great for, for having your defensive mind, you kick Kenny Clark out to the other four eye instead of playing nose. I, I think you could, you could solve that. You know, I think there are ways to solve this still. There's still tons of paths. It's just not as clear as going the free agent route like right now and getting the big guy like we thought, so we'll see.

[Marcus Moser]

Well, just like in all these scenarios, like, I mean I, I feel even stronger than I did even yesterday that they have to trade back at least once from 12 to 20 because I, my belief this whole time is that the only way they're going to actually get better on defense is by adding a bunch of depth and a bunch of young players. Right. They have three picks inside the top 100. Now. You would love to have four top 100 picks and those are four defensive guys. And what if it's, you know, you trade back from 20 to 30 and maybe you feel like McDonald's is a little rich at 20, but at 30 it's, you know, it's a great spot and that, you know, in the additional pick that you picked up that ends up being a linebacker that you grabbed in round two or whatever, there's. They need depth in the worst way. And I think the draft is the only way that you're going to get quality depth that's trending upward that could help you get back to being average.

[Landon McCool]

I, I would push back on that just slightly. I still think this free agent period can be good for adding decent depth. Guys that will play, I think placeholders. Yeah, well, I mean not, you know, not the long term solution at the position, but I'm saying you don't need, you don't need like full time solutions as at your DT4 or.

[Marcus Moser]

No, you're looking for rentals guys that could be one year rentals. Yeah.

[Landon McCool]

So there's still like quality guys who can impact games, you know, not like, you know, not be Dominator games, but guys who can come in and give you quality snaps on a rotational basis that are available to free agency. But if you're looking for the long term top end talent that's gone from free agency that's that's where, that's where you have to go get draft. And I, and I completely agree with that. I just don't want to make it sound like there aren't very useful players still available free agency because I really do think that there are.

[Marcus Moser]

This is where will McClay and the front office needs to be better is identifying these guys from the I'm going to call them like the two to $5 million range, guys that can come in, fill roles and feel good about now. They did it a little bit last year. Javante Williams was a hit for them. Like they signed that guy to one year $3 million deal was better than they ever could imagined. They haven't done it on defense in a while and that's my only pushback is that they have not been great at identifying talent. But if this was every year, the year to do it, like if they could find two of those guys this year, one at defensive tackle and one at corner, I would feel so much better about their situation going into the draft.

[Landon McCool]

And I think that's possible. Like I think that there's still like that's why, you know, if I was to lay out a plan to make Cowboys feel better about how they could get to a spot where they would be a little bit more set up, I think it would be that, hey, they add maybe two, three more guys who maybe aren't. Maybe one of them is a starter, maybe like a defensive tackle, but the other two guys are reliable veteran presences who when paired with a rookie gives you a solid base at those positions. I think that that's well within striking distance of what the cow, what the Cowboys still have available on free agency. And then we get into the draft and we go draft and that means trading back, trading for players, doing what we need to do to kind of get the rest of the talent that you need to acquire.

[Marcus Moser]

We went into free agency. At least you and I did say that the Cowboys probably need five to seven contributors on defense. I think they got at least two in Jalen Thompson and Rashawn Gary, but they've also lost two with OSA Digisua and Solomon Thomas. So I'm feel very confident it's the same thing. They need to find five to seven of those guys. They have three draft picks. Right. Can you find two to three more guys in free agency before we get to the draft? We'll see. That is it for today's show. We'd like to thank you for making lockdown Cowboys your first listen every single day. If you never miss an episode. The everyday club is built for you. Get locked on Cowboys ad free members only, discord access and so much more. Head over to locked on cowboys.supercast.com to join the club. And for those of you on video, we can send you the first ever 24. 7 national NBA YouTube channel. And on audio, make your second listen the lockdown NFL Draft podcast. Follow Landon on Twitter @mccoolbcb. I'm @Marcus Underscore Moser and we'll see you right back here tomorrow.

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[Marcus Moser]

Arby's. We have the meats and participating Arby's

[Landon McCool]

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