Vikings Urged to Sign Cowboys Defender
The Minnesota Vikings have some cap space for the first time in years, entering the offseason with more than $50 million. General manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has to fill out the 90-man offseason roster and acquire some new key players. He has the funds to replicate the outstanding free-agency period he delivered last offseason.
Vikings Urged to Sign Cowboys Defender
Positions he has to address include both the defensive and the offensive line, the secondary at the cornerback and safety spots and the club needs a new running back (or Aaron Jones back for another year).
The trenches have annoyed Vikings fans for years. There is no real interior pass rusher at the center of the defensive front, and the interior offensive line has been a liability for almost a decade.
For Brian Flores’ defense, the Vikings could find some help in free agency. Jordan Dajani, CBS Sports, thinks the Vikings should go after one of the top names, Cowboys defender Osa Odighizuwa.
He listed one free agent each team should try to acquire, and the Vikings exit free agency with one of the top guys on the market.
“The Vikings could upgrade on the defensive line, and Brian Flores would certainly enjoy an interior pass-rushing piece such as Odighizuwa,” Dajani opined. “The 26-year-old had a career year in 2024 with 47 combined tackles, 4.5 sacks and 23 QB hits.”
Odighizuwa entered the NFL draft in 2021, and the Cowboys pulled the trigger with the 75th overall pick, bringing the UCLA defender to Dallas in the third round.
He immediately clinched a starting job on the defensive line and has played in 67 of the possible 68 regular season games in his four-year career, recording 172 tackles and 13.5 sacks.
At 6-2 and 280 pounds, the 26-year-old has the ideal size for a defensive end in Minnesota’s defense. His specialty is the pass rush, where he is a much superior player compared to every interior lineman the Vikings have had in the building in quite some time.
PFF credited him with 60 QB pressures, 39 QB hurries, and 14 QB hits. Just for comparison, each of those would’ve ranked him second on Minnesota’s defense. His pass-rush win percentage of 15.1% ranked him in the top ten of all NFL interior defenders. The only Vikings with a percentage above 10% (and at least 100 pass-rush snaps) were Jonathan Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel.
Odighizuwa would be a massive upgrade over the impending free agents Jerry Tillery and Jonathan Bullard. Harrison Phillips, Taki Taimani, Jalen Redmond, and Levi Drake Rodriguez are the only returning linemen besides practice squad player Jonathan Harris.
The Vikings need to create some natural wins from the inside. Relying only on Flores to draw up the perfect blitz at the perfect time or hoping for the two edge rushers to get to the quarterback on every play doesn’t work, and the Rams and the Lions took advantage of the absence of an interior threat.
Signing Odighizuwa would fill that role. The downside is that he will likely command a hefty salary with a large annual average.
He remains a name to watch for the Vikings.
Editor’s Note: Information from PFF, Over The Cap, and Pro Football Reference helped with this article.
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Janik Eckardt is a football fan who likes numbers and stats. The Vikings became his favorite team despite their quarterback at the time, Christian Ponder. He is a walking soccer encyclopedia, loves watching sitcoms, and prefers Classic rock over other genres. Follow him on Twitter if you like the Vikings: @JanikEckardt