49ers earn solid grade for Osa Odighizuwa trade

The San Francisco 49ers addressed a significant need on Wednesday, agreeing to send a third-round draft pick to the Dallas Cowboys for defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa. The move bolsters a defensive line that struggled with consistency throughout the 2025 season.

San Francisco invested heavily in the defensive front last year, using three draft picks on defensive linemen. First-round selection Mykel Williams saw his 2025 campaign cut short by an ACL injury.

Meanwhile, defensive tackles Alfred Collins and CJ West showed flashes of promise but finished with the lowest overall Pro Football Focus (PFF) grades on the team (35.0). Both players are expected to improve with additional experience.

Beyond adding a proven interior starter, the Odighizuwa trade also addresses another major offseason concern: the pass rush. The 49ers recorded just 20 sacks last season—by far the fewest in the NFL.

Odighizuwa has generated an impressive 112 quarterback pressures over the past two seasons. While his PFF pass-rush grade was solid in 2025 (71.5), it was even stronger in 2024 (78.5) and 2023 (78.7).

Garrett Podell of CBS Sports evaluated the trade, giving the 49ers a B+ grade and the Cowboys a C+. Podell believes Dallas made the move out of desperation, while San Francisco made a strong move to upgrade its defensive front.

Podell pointed specifically to the 49ers' need to improve their pass rush.

"That was especially true at the defensive tackle spot with San Francisco's 49ers combining for just 1.5 sacks, 46 quarterback pressures, and a 5.1% quarterback pressure rate in 2025," Podell wrote. "Those were all the fewest in each metric at the defensive tackle position among the league's 32 teams.

"Odighizuwa will provide a huge boost to that position in San Francisco, and parting with a third-round pick to fill that need is pretty good value. Between him turning 28 in August and having three years left on a four-year, $80 million contract, the 49ers made away with solid value."

Why not a higher grade?

Podell added, "If this was a fourth-round pick or lower, the grade would have been in the A range."