The Cowboys are keeping Leighton Vander Esch. On Friday, the linebacker agreed to a brand new one-year deal (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport). It’s a one-year, $2MM pact, Albert Breer of SI.com tweets.
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LVE was a first-round pick of the Cowboys in 2018, but they declined to pick up his fifth-year option. That put him on course for free agency this week, though the Cowboys were still interested in bringing him back — just at a lower rate.
Vander Esch made the Pro Bowl and the second-team All-Pro team as a rookie in 2018. That year, the No. 19 overall pick notched 140 tackles, seven passes defended, and two interceptions. But, in 2020, he finished with just 60 tackles, one sack, one forced fumble, and zero passes defended in ten contests. This past season, he notched 77 stops, one sack, and one interception, showing that he still has something to offer as a coverage linebacker.
This year, LVE will try to reassert himself in the Cowboys’ pecking order. After playing on more than 75% of the snaps in his first two years, Vander Esch dropped to 67% in 2020 and just 58% of snaps in 2021.
There are two major factors in explaining alright on Vander Esch’s decline. One is fixable, one is probably not.
The possibly unfixable one is his injury-there was some talk of his having neck/back issues prior to the draft, but there was no absolute guarantee, and he played insanely well his rookie year, so there was some good hope for him as a player going forward. I have no clue, obviously, how serious a concern that injury is for the future. The second is that the Cowboys changed their scheme drastically from Vander Esch’s rookie year.
Vander Esch excelled as a coverage backer in Marinelli’s standard base 4-3 defense. He is not as well suited to the base 3-4 installed by Nolan and now run by Quinn, who has changed from his old Cover 3 scheme to incorporate a lot of Mike McCarthy’s favored 3-4 looks. Vander Esch is not as suited to be an edge defender in my opinion as he is to be a coverage linebacker. Those two things have dropped his production, but at a lower price, I think he can still be a valuable piece to that team’s defense.
He was so good as a rookie but just hasn’t looked the same since his injuries. Still a serviceable player. Hope they didn’t overpay
3 mil is what’s being reported
I thought Bobby Wagner was a better fit in Dallas.
He has stenosis and seems serious otherwise a extremely talented player…
Thank you for the specifics. I do agree with your conclusion.