Dallas Cowboys to meet with DeMarcus Lawrence, Osa Odighizuwa this week before free agency
The Dallas Cowboys touched down in Indianapolis on Monday, ahead of the NFL Scouting Combine where they will get a good feel on evaluating this year’s crop of college talent while also having some key conversations about the state of the team heading into free agency in a little more than two weeks.
Of the many things on the agenda for this week, the Cowboys will meet with two impending free agents and their representation to discuss a potential return to Dallas: defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa and defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence.
Odighizuwa is due for his second NFL contract after the expiration of his four-year rookie deal, as he could command as much as $23 million per year on a new deal. While the Cowboys have not been known to lay down that type of money bag in the past on free agents, executive vice president Stephen Jones said on Monday that the objective is to get a deal done with the UCLA product.
“We’re certainly working with him right now, working with his agent,” Jones said. “We’ve had productive talks. We’ll see where they end up this week.”
While the team could theoretically use a franchise tag ($24.07 million for one year, according to Over the Cap) or a transition tag ($19.421 million for one year, according to Over the Cap), Jones would not get into the weeds of the upcoming conversation with Odighizuwa.
“We’re working to get a deal done with Osa.”
Lawrence is coming off a season where he missed the final 12 games with a Lisfranc injury to his already surgically repaired foot. Jones does not know one way or the other with how the veteran of 11 seasons with Dallas is feeling heading into free agency with the goal of pinning that down this week in Indianapolis.
“We’ll have more discussions this week. I don’t want to get out in front or assume one thing or the other. I assume he can speak to that, that’s where we like to leave it. We’ll have the same respect for DeMarcus Lawrence.”
“We think the world of D-Law, he’s laid it on the line for years and years. He’s been right there with the Tyron Smiths and the Zack Martins. We’ll obviously be sitting down with D-Law and his representation this week.”
The quarterback position behind Dak Prescott is another area in need of attention this offseason, as the Cowboys will see Cooper Rush and Trey Lance both hit free agency. The team is not expecting Lance to return to Dallas after two seasons as the third-string option, as they will look toward the draft at another young signal-caller.
“It’s something we’ll look at in the draft, to see if there’s a young guy to start bringing along,” Jones said. “Obviously, we were focused on Trey when we traded for him. He was our young guy that we were bringing along.”
Another item on the agenda this offseason is getting an extension done with Micah Parsons. Despite Parsons’ pleas to get a deal done sooner rather than later, the Cowboys have yet to start negotiations with their star defender.
“There’s always extenuating circumstances to these things,” Jones said. “Every contract negotiation is different. We’ll see how Micah’s deal goes. I don’t necessarily know that there’s any extenuating situations that would precede us from getting our hands around something like Micah, but we’ll see.”
In his availability with reporters, Jones acknowledged how last year wasn’t up to expectation for the Cowboys. Going into this offseason, Jones mentioned on multiple occasions that the team wants to be “selectively aggressive” in building a stronger roster that can withstand some of the injury issues that they faced a year ago.
“We’re going to be selectively aggressive,” he said. “Our goals in the past have been to fill as many of your musts and needs before the draft so you can pick best player on your board. We didn’t get that totally accomplished last year, but that’s always the goal. Every year is different in terms of what those musts and needs are.”
“We’re going to look at everything we can and be selectively aggressive. In this league, you have a certain amount of resources they allow you to have and we’ll look at that. We’re going to improve our football team. We expect to have success this year.”
This story was originally published February 24, 2025 at 4:04 PM.
