Report: Broken collarbone to keep Cowboys LB Vander Esch out ‘6 to 8 weeks’

The Cowboys linebacker will go on injured reserve, but should return this season. He missed 7 games in 2019 with neck injuries.

Third-year linebacker Leighton Vander Esch spoke on Friday about how excited he was to be back on the field. After a bulging neck disk and a diagnosis of congenital spinal stenosis kept him out of the last six games of 2019, the former first-round draft pick said going into Sunday night’s season opener was the best he’s felt in a year. 2020 was all set to be a comeback campaign for the 2018 Pro Bowler.

The curtain came down on that comeback before the halftime intermission. Vander Esch suffered a broken collarbone after three tackles in just two drives during the team’s Week 1 loss to the Rams, and will be headed to injured reserve, according to NFL insider Ian Rapoport.

As Rapoport notes, Vander Esch will be eligible to return this season. Under the 2020 COVID-19 rules for this NFL season, a player on IR may return after missing just three weeks. In a normal year, a player is not allowed to return from injured reserve unless he has missed at least six weeks’ worth of practice and eight weeks’ worth of games.

The nature of Vander Esch’s injury, though, indicates that he’ll still miss about that much time.

Rapoport tweeted Monday morning that the CT scan showed that Vander Esch “cleanly broke” the bone and confirmed a timetable to return of “6-8 weeks.”

A six-game absence would put Vander Esch out until the Cowboys travel to Philadelphia on Nov. 1. Missing eight games means he would also be unavailable for a game against Pittsburgh and then back in action versus Minnesota on the Sunday before Thanksgiving.

Vander Esch’s teammates on the Dallas defense talked about losing their leader after the 20-17 loss in Los Angeles.

“I know how it feels to be injured, to suffer an injury,” linebacker Jaylon Smith offered. “I don’t wish that on anyone. It’s definitely tough, but I know Leighton is a strong guy with a strong mind and a good support system, so he’s going to come back strong.”

“Obviously, whenever a guy, a teammate, goes down, it sucks,” stated defensive end Aldon Smith, who was back on the field for the first time in five years. “But we have good depth. We have guys ready to step in, and [linebacker] Joe [Thomas] stepped in and made some plays. So we’ll just have to make adjustments and keep trying to get better each week.”

Thomas played well in place of Vander Esch, recording five total tackles. The Cowboys linebacking corps is already thinned, with veteran Sean Lee starting the season on IR due to a sports hernia. He’s eligible to return as early as Week 4, but Thomas will have to do much of the heavy lifting until that help arrives.

Second-year linebacker Luke Gifford showed promise as a rookie, and may be asked to accelerate his contributions now. Francis Bernard, an undrafted rookie out of Utah, had a strong camp and may also get a long look as the Cowboys plug early holes in their defense.

Smith took over green-dot duties after Vander Esch exited Sunday’s contest, relaying the defensive play calls from coordinator Mike Nolan. Smith and Vander Esch had swapped roles this offseason, with Vander Esch taking over as the middle linebacker and Smith sliding to his former weak side spot.

But in Nolan’s new-look scheme, defensive players are asked to ignore the position labels and do more out-of-position work. So it will be up to all of the linebackers- and the rest of the defense, too- to pick up the slack, starting with meetings with the Falcons and Seahawks over the next two weeks.

“I think, just collectively as a defense, including myself, we’ve just all got to play better,” Smith concluded. “We have a standard, and we’ve got to play it.”

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