{"id":218525,"date":"2025-02-22T14:30:26","date_gmt":"2025-02-22T19:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=218525"},"modified":"2025-02-21T18:26:34","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T23:26:34","slug":"breakout-free-agent-dayo-odeyingbo-defensive-star-likely-to-test-free-agency-market-at-least-5-teams-could-pursue-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/02\/22\/breakout-free-agent-dayo-odeyingbo-defensive-star-likely-to-test-free-agency-market-at-least-5-teams-could-pursue-him\/","title":{"rendered":"Breakout Free Agent Defensive Star “Likely” to Test Market – At Least 5 Teams Could Pursue Him"},"content":{"rendered":"

Breakout free agent Dayo Odeyingbo<\/a> will likely test the market next month in the new league after his breakout 2024 campaign. According to a few reports<\/a>, the Indianapolis Colts have been shifting away from the defensive lineman since last year when they picked up Kwity Paye’s fifth-year option and got Laiatu Latu<\/a> in last offseason’s draft. With that, General Manager Chris Ballard is adding a philosophical shift<\/a> that will likely make Odeyingbo expendable. Originally selected in the second round of the 2021 NFL Draft, the former Vanderbilt product isn’t the most attractive defensive end on the market but he should receive some type of interest when he’s available.<\/p>\n

The Colts took a risk on him in 2021 since he tore his Achilles so the team was bargaining around to see if he was worth it. Odeyingbo was slow coming out of the gates<\/a> with just 0.5 sacks in his first two seasons until he put up a career-high of eight sacks in 2023. It’s been an upward and downhill spiral for the defensive end but with a new scenery, he should be able to have a chance to earn a starting position. For the Colts, Ballard acknowledges he put too many pieces at the defensive line so it’s likely they’ll keep just a few substacks of linemen for their immediate future.<\/p>\n

Breakout Free Agent Dayo Odeyingbo Defensive Star “Likely” to Test Free Agency – At Least 5 Teams Could Pursue Him<\/h2>\n

Next Possible Destinations<\/h3>\n

Baltimore Ravens<\/h4>\n

The Baltimore Ravens could have easily been the best football team last season but a depleting pass defense didn’t help alleviate the pressure from opposing offenses. Kyle Van Noy plans to return<\/a> but he needs more balance in the defensive front if he and Roquan Smith want to see consistent success in getting after the quarterback. Odeyingbo won’t start off strong but it gives Nnamdi Madubuike<\/a> another man to share the rotation with to fill the gaps.<\/p>\n

New Orleans Saints<\/h4>\n

A move to sign Odeyingbo for the Saints could be a safe bargain move for Mickey Loomis’ roster. Chase Young will likely be in a new uniform<\/a> and Cameron Jordan<\/a> may be cut so they won’t be able to afford the best pass rusher available. Perhaps, Odeyingo may be a cost-effective temporary replacement until the team figures out how to lessen the salary cap debt.<\/p>\n

Dallas Cowboys<\/h4>\n

Vice President COO Stephen Jones is on the same pathway as last offseason<\/a> where the Cowboys will wind up not spending much money in free agency. While they lost Dante Fowler Jr. and Dorance Armstrong in 2024, they have yet to find a capable replacement to help Micah Parsons<\/a> in the pass rush. The Cowboys could probably get away with giving Odeyingbo a shot on a very cheap one-year deal to help bring some life to the Dallas defense. They’re attempting to re-sign Osa Odighizuwa as well so these two moves should put the best team forward.<\/p>\n

Washington Commanders<\/h4>\n

The Commanders are in the works of building a Super Bowl roster for the offense and it has paid off for them. However, it hasn’t been the same noise for the defense as they have their struggles. Jonathan Allen<\/a> will likely get cut and Bobby Wagner may not return.<\/a> They need just about any defensive lineman and while they have money to burn, they could sign Odeyingbo on a lucrative deal to spice up the defensive trenches.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Chargers<\/h4>\n

Poona Ford is in the best position to sign a new deal this offseason as the Chargers have the cap space to do so. However, they may lose Khalil Mack<\/a> and release Joey Bosa so they could benefit from adding another defensive lineman at least. Odeyingbo won’t start but he could earn a spot alongside to help Ford if the Chargers sign him back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Breakout Indianapolis star could be expendable as he will head into free agency as a talent that could spark interest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4795,"featured_media":218536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,10,19,12,18,28,8896],"tags":[7723,7642,5718,7422,8025,7800,358,3267,7429,6993,7752,7638,7659,8996],"class_list":["post-218525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-ravens","category-cowboys","category-colts","category-chargers","category-saints","category-washington-commanders","tag-baltimore-ravens-news","tag-chargers-featured","tag-chase-young","tag-dallas-cowboys-news","tag-dayo-odeyingbo","tag-indianapolis-colts-news","tag-khalil-mack","tag-kyle-van-noy","tag-los-angeles-chargers-news","tag-micah-parsons","tag-new-orleans-saints-news","tag-ravens-featured","tag-saints-featured","tag-washington-commanders-news"],"modified_by":"Anthony Palacios","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4795"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218525"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":218553,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218525\/revisions\/218553"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}