Cowboys LB Review: Sign Leighton Vander Esch, Start Damone Clark?

The Dallas Cowboys defense was stellar this season with Leighton Vander Esch leading the way for the linebacker group.

Dallas Cowboys linebacker Leighton Vander Esch was nearly out as a member of Dan Quinn's defense last offseason, with CowboysSI.com reporting exclusively at the time that the Steelers were close to giving him a deal with $8 million APY.

Vander Esch didn't get his payday then. But after agreeing to a one-year deal, and now that the "Wolf Hunter" has played perhaps the best football of his career?

A payday is coming.

Other linebackers in Anthony Barr, Luke Gifford, Jabril Cox and feel-good story Damone Clark - who might be "the next big thing'' around here - all played their part at one time or another during the season. And of course "Lion-backer'' Micah Parsons did as well, though mostly as an EDGE guy in 2022.

In review ... 

With Quinn's defensive unit garnering most of the plaudits, Vander Esch's importance to the team was there for all to see. 

The former Boise State star had a season that will undoubtedly see him grab a brand new deal that might be worth (again) around $8 million per year. It's too early to know whether that will be with Dallas, but ... when he was in the lineup, the Cowboys defense elevated.

Before his late-season stinger injury, the Dallas defense had only given up 30-plus points once. In the first two games he missed, the Cowboys conceded 40 and 34 points. 

Once he returned against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the playoffs, he continued his good form and Dallas won in a blowout,

Barr, on a one-year deal coming over from Minnesota, played well enough that it freed Parsons to be used predominantly as a pass-rusher.

Barr's arrival pushed Luke Gifford down to being a special-teamer (and a good one) as Gifford never played over 17 percent of defensive snaps. Second-year player Jabril Cox did not make much of a leap from his promising rookie season.

But maybe that's because ... 

Damone Clark was a shocker, and a revelation. He was thrown in the deep end against the Chicago Bears in Week 8 and flourished, finishing with six combined tackles and a total of 57 snaps (40 on defense, 17 on special teams).

After Barr suffered a hamstring injury prior to the Minnesota Vikings game, Clark made the first of his five starts.

The fact that Clark even made it onto an NFL field in 2022 is incredible. After having spinal fusion surgery on March 24, the rookie was expected to miss the entire season.

Instead ... he got valuable experience and could be considered one of the Cowboys' "draft-and-develop" standouts in the making.

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