Philadelphia Eagles: Ranking the defensive tackle units of the NFC East

Howie Roseman has long been a proponent of building the Philadelphia Eagles through the trenches.

He’s used dozens of premium picks on the offensive and defensive line, signed big-money free agents who play the positions, and has even made a trade or two to move up in the draft or to explicitly acquire a veteran, all to ensure that his coaches, whomever that may be at the time, have the best possible players closest to the line.

But have the rest of the teams across the NFC East stuck to the same philosophy? Let’s take a look at the defensive tackle units across the division to see how each team stacks up against their peers.

4. Dallas Cowboys

The Dallas Cowboys are not what you would call a team loaded to the gills with defensive tackle talent.

Sure, they have a few promising performers, including five in-house draftees in Osa Odighizuwa, John Ridgeway, Quinton Bohanna, Trysten Hill, and Neville Gallimore, who are all still on their rookie-scale contracts, but outside of Carlos Watkins, who signed a low-money deal in free agency, the Cowboys really haven’t invested serious assets in the defensive tackle position, and as a result, their interior performers are more tackle-by-committee than a platoon headlined by an unflappable star.

Top performer: Osa Odighizuwa

In 2021, Osa Odighizuwa was probably the Cowboys’ best interior lineman. A third-round pick out of UCLA, Odighizuwa, whose brother, Owamagbe, once played for the New York Giants, logged the most defensive snaps of any defensive tackle on the team at 616 and was largely a positive performer, even if his stats weren’t exactly worth writing home about.

Still, if Odighizuwa can take a step forward in his second professional season, there’s little reason to believe that he couldn’t have a solid role on the team for quite some time.