Following an offseason hip injury, Cowboys defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa has been limited throughout the team’s OTAs this year. Reporters have spotted the former Bruin in plain clothes on the side of practice, but according to Mike McCarthy, the team is practicing precaution with the defensive star.
“Just playing the long-game,” McCarthy said on Thursday while downplaying concerns of over-training. “Osa’s always going to train. He’s here every day. I just think every one of these professional athletes has a custom plan for their training.
“He’s always going to work, that’s just the way he’s built. How much he’s working and what exactly he’s working, that’s what he’s going through now, because we don’t want an injury to re-occur. We don’t just have a blanket workout for everybody, it’s all coordinated.”
Odighizuwa focused on production in 2024 contract season
Odighizuwa may not have the name recognition of his teammate Micah Parsons, but Parsons believes he can hit double-digits in sacks just like he can this season. During the 2023 season, he had a career-high 46 tackles with 9.5 tackles for loss and three sacks. Those stats bring his three-year totals up to 125 tackles, nine sacks and 23.5 tackles for loss.
“I definitely feel like I have the ability to be a double-digit sack guy,” Odighizuwa told Kay Adams this month. “There’s another level I can reach in terms of my pass rush and play in general. There’s a lot of room for growth. Production is always something I want to increase.”
Like several of his teammates, Odighizuwa is entering a contract season this year. He is going on Year 4 of his four-year, $5.08 million deal and if he keeps it up, there are more dollar signs coming his way soon.
“The way I see it… they’re going to let everyone do what they’ve got to do this year and then let the chips fall where they may,” he said regarding his contract status. “Everyone’s got to perform at the highest level in order to get to where we want to get to. I don’t really control who gets paid, all I can do is control how I play and then hopefully that’s going to result in what I want which would be a second deal with Dallas. I’m just going to control what I can control in that regard.”
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