{"id":858260,"date":"2026-04-07T05:24:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T05:24:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/858260\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T05:24:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T05:24:27","slug":"cowboys-coach-wept-on-the-phone-after-trading-odighizuwa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/858260\/","title":{"rendered":"Cowboys coach \u2018wept on the phone\u2019 after trading Odighizuwa"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dallas Cowboys are in the middle of a scheme change on the defensive side<\/a> of the ball going into the 2026 season, and with that has already come some tough decisions for the coaching staff and front office.<\/p>\n

Of those, arguably no choice was more difficult to make than trading away defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa<\/a> to the San Francisco 49ers in exchange for a third-round pick (No. 92 overall) in the draft. A captain from last season, Odighizuwa spent five years with the Cowboys after being drafted in the third round in 2021. But in the move to a more 3-4 front, Odighizuwa was viewed as a surplus that the team could use elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime you go through a scheme change that\u2019s going to be adjustments where you move on from an incredible person, incredible leader in Osa,\u201d head coach Brian Schottenheimer said. \u201cThat was one of the hard ones. I\u2019m happy to share with you guys, I wept. We both wept on the phone together. It was hard, but that\u2019s the nature of the business, and I\u2019m thrilled that he\u2019s going to a place that is a great fit for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

In five seasons, Odighizuwa played in 84 games (missed just one game) while accumulating 216 tackles, 34 tackles for loss and 17.0 sacks. Off the field, he had steadily become a bigger voice in the locker room, specifically for the team after the passing of teammate Marshawn Kneeland<\/a> during the 2025 season. His respect earned him captain status for the duration of the year in Schottenheimer\u2019s first season as head coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s part of the deal, [it\u2019s] about having hard conversations,\u201d Schottenheimer said. \u201cEveryone understands this is a business. Literally, Osa and I sat on the phone for 20, 25 minutes, weeping and crying. We were both crying. He\u2019s like, \u2018Coach, I understand.\u2019 I go, \u2018I know you do, but it doesn\u2019t make it any easier.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the trade was made, owner Jerry Jones said he was working to try and figure out a way for Odighizuwa to work in the new scheme, potentially as more of an outside presence than he\u2019d been during his career with his length. He even had a Hall of Famer in his back pocket that was ready to help him with that transition.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t think that a lot of time wasn\u2019t spent, trying to picture — I more than anybody — him with those long arms getting out there on the outside and giving us that [presence] on the outside,\u201d Jones said. \u201cSo, I never did agree when those coaches were telling me, \u2018That\u2019s not the best spot.\u2019 That was there. Charles Haley told me, \u2018You get him out there, and I\u2019ll show him how to get going.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Now on paper, the Cowboys can use the No. 92 overall selection acquired in the trade to go grab a defender at a different position — one of need — going into next season. After extending Odighizuwa last offseason, the Cowboys acquired fellow defensive tackles Quinnen Williams and Kenny Clark in trades, making Odighizuwa more of an expendable asset.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody on that team recognized how high quality that he was,\u201d Jones said. \u201cAnd it was, in our case, a question of having an opportunity to do something that actually can be good for him. That\u2019s not what anybody wants to hear. It\u2019s good for us. We can take those same resources, and we can put it into another part of that defense and be better off with the scheme that we\u2019re in.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Nick Harris<\/a><\/p>\n

Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n

Nick Harris is the Dallas Cowboys beat reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He has experience working on the beat for DallasCowboys.com and previous work experience at Yahoo Sports\/Rivals and 247Sports.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dallas Cowboys are in the middle of a scheme change on the defensive side of the ball…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":858261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2066],"tags":[230,229,257,2461,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-858260","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-cowboys","8":"tag-cowboys","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-cowboys","11":"tag-dallascowboys","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116361762179235834","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=858260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=858260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=858260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=858260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}