The highly-touted rookie could be put on the active roster within the next 3 weeks after rehabbing from spinal fusion surgery in March. | From @ToddBrock24f7
The Cowboys’ latest player gamble is a little bit closer to paying off.
Rookie linebacker Damone Clark, a fifth-round draft pick this spring, had his 21-day practice window activated Wednesday and is working on the field with the team for the first time.
“Everybody is excited about that,” head coach Mike McCarthy told reporters.
Clark could now be added to the active roster at any point in the next three weeks, but the club will likely take a fairly methodical approach with the 22-year-old. The LSU product had spinal fusion surgery in late March after a problematic herniated disc was discovered via MRI at the scouting combine.
It dropped Clark out of the Top 100 pick in April’s draft, but it didn’t scare the Cowboys away from selecting him on Day Three. Leighton Vander Esch had the same procedure done following the 2019 season and has not had further issues.
That alone helped boost Clark’s confidence in aiming for a return to action.
“If you have someone like Leighton who had the same exact injury and he’s back on the field,” Clark said in the spring, “why wouldn’t I be back on the field, too?”
The Louisiana native believes the surgery will ultimately extend his career rather than shorten it; now that career is a step closer to finally starting.
“I’ll say this, we’re all excited about him. How can you not?” McCarthy asked Wednesday. “You see, obviously, the player he was in college coming out and, more importantly, just how he’s been since he’s been here. This young man is here every day. I’m talking on the weekend, he’s here all the time. He’s ready. I think our medical staff and Damone himself, the patience has been tough, because just how the whole injury unfolded and so forth. My point is, I think the rehab process is complete.”
Clark got plenty of attention Wednesday in his first practice as a pro, wearing the No. 33 jersey made famous by Hall of Fame running back Tony Dorsett. The number assignment at least hints at huge expectations for Clark, who proved himself capable of being a game-wrecker in college and figures to be again once fully healed.
The Cowboys always believed that Clark would be ready for action at some point during this season, and elected to place him on the Non-Football Injury list with an eye toward that timeline.
Now he has three weeks to work with the team. If he is not activated to the active roster in that time, he will go back to the NFI list for the remainder of the 2022 campaign. But the Cowboys- and Clark- will have gotten a good long look at both his health status and enormous potential within Dan Quinn’s defense.
“I’m personally happy we waited as long as we did,” McCarthy continued, “because now this young man can jump in there full speed. But he hasn’t put on pads in a year and a half, so let’s be realistic about that. It’ll be good to get him out here working. I’d like to see where he is at the end of the week, but in a lot of ways, he’s like a guy that just showed up at training camp and missed ramp-up and missed the whole offseason program. He just needs the work. It’ll be great to have him out there.”
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