Dallas Cowboys linebacker to miss rest of 2023 season due to neck injury.

Leighton Vander Esch, a linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys, will miss the rest of the 2023 season, and his career’s course may be uncertain. Following a neck injury sustained in the Cowboys’ Week 5 loss to the San Francisco 49ers, Vander Esch will remain on injured reserve for the remainder of the season, according to reports confirmed by Cowboys owner Jerry Jones in his weekly interview on 105.3 The Fan.

According to S DeShon Elliott Jones, who was quoted in the Dallas Morning News, “We had just completely left it up to how he was evolving,” he agreed that the reports were accurate. Naturally, though, this is a huge loss for us. He is a crucial component of the defense system there. All we can do is wish him luck. Because of the nature of his possible injury, I’m forced to consider the team’s long-term goals rather than just what it implies for the upcoming week or month. Everything about it revolves around what’s best for him.

Vander Esch recorded 30 tackles and a fumble recovery for a score in his five starts in 2023. His history of neck injuries includes this setback as well as one from 2019 that resulted in a cervical spinal stenosis diagnosis, which is a narrowing of the spinal column in the neck. After undergoing surgery at the beginning of 2020, he has participated in 45 games.

Even though he signed a two-year contract extension with the Cowboys this offseason, there has always been a chance that he may suffer another neck injury that might endanger his career. “There are a lot of factors involved, but he just really needs to see how this continues to heal and then go from that point as to whether or not he would want to continue to say, expose himself to injury,” Jones said in reference to the unknown future.