It’s no secret that as good as the Dallas Cowboys defense was under former coordinator Dan Quinn, the defensive tackle position was always an area that they could have been better at, and that continued under Mike Zimmer. The guy that has saved the group has been veteran Osa Odighizuwa who has continued to raise his game every season. While that was good for the Cowboys on the field, it has also made the likelihood of Odighizuwa going elsewhere in free agency even higher, seeing as the team may get priced out.
Dallas will look into filling the void in April when the NFL draft comes around. However, they don’t have to wait that long. If the Cowboys want to look at a veteran option when it comes to a trade, DeForest Buckner of the Indianapolis Colts is someone they should take a look at.
Buckner is a former first-round pick of the San Francisco 49ers back in 2016. He racked up 28.5 sacks during his four seasons there, which included a Pro Bowl nod in 2018 (logged a career-high 12 sacks) and a second-team All-Pro selection in 2019. Buckner was then traded to the Colts in March of 2020, and he put up 58 tackles and 9.5 sacks, which led to him receiving first-team All-Pro honors. He produced seven sacks the next season before back-to-back years of amassing eight sacks, which also included a career-high 81 tackles in 2023. Last season, Buckner missed five games with a high ankle sprain. Despite this, he was still able to have a productive season with 61 tackles and 6.5 sacks.
During his first nine seasons, Buckner has loved 453 pressures. In fact, the 2024 campaign was the first where he didn’t produce at least 48 over the course of an entire season (finished with 35 in 12 games). He also has 269 hurries, and there’s no better way to disrupt a quarterback than to attack him up the middle and force him to move around. This is something the Cowboys have needed on a consistent basis for ages.
One key element that should make the Cowboys want to explore the possibility of trading for Buckner is his familiarity with their new defensive coordinator, Matt Eberflus. He coached Buckner for two seasons when he was the defensive coordinator for the Colts, which included his first-team All-Pro campaign in 2020. Eberflus turned the Colts defensive completely around, and Buckner was a huge factor in that, so he already knows what he wants to do and how he wants to attack opposing offenses.
Buckner would provide immediate impact for the Cowboys on the interior, which would help free up the nuclear missile that is All-Pro Micah Parsons. He has played in 141 out of a possible 148 games during his career with 136 starts, and there’s no substitute for availability. Buckner has two years left on his deal with a base salary of $13 million in each. That’s less than what the Cowboys would have to pay for a quality free agent.
Dallas needs to go against their usual philosophy of sitting back and pick up the phone to see what it would take to get Buckner, and give Eberflus another key defender to build his new defense around.
