Cowboys’ best Zimmer-style LB may not be back in 2024

Both good and terrible news are available: The good news is that the new defensive coordinator for the Cowboys intends to address a problem that the team faced in 2023. The bad news is that it’s possible the ideal roster addition won’t be coming back.

Nick Eatman and Patrik Walker both mentioned the linebacker position when questioned about the Cowboys’ most noticeable change under Zimmer in 2024. Many in the field agree with this sentiment, which distances Zimmer’s stay in Minnesota from his earlier stays in Cincinnati and Dallas many years ago.

Big LBs are Zimmer’s thing. Guys that can hit, cover ground, and maintain small passing windows are what he prefers. He is fond of intelligent folks who are capable of carrying out their assigned tasks. No speculating. Not a ball of heroes.

In all honesty, long and rangy linebackers have never really gone out of style in the NFL; nevertheless, as the passing game has become more effective, quickness and coverage have become more important. Undersized LBs and even tweeners have found success because of this focus. Go no farther than Dallas’s tweener roles under Dan Quinn, held by Markquese Bell and Jayron Kearse. However, there is always an equal and opposite response to any action, and in the NFL, offenses have adjusted as a result of noticing all the tiny men in the box. In the NFL, passing is still king, but running the ball is making a comeback.

Particularly skilled at running the ball behind different personnel mismatches are Shanahan offenses. It’s also no secret that offensive schemes that have their roots in the Shanahan coaching tree have been quite successful in both phases of the game when facing the Cowboys.

Zimmer, on the other hand, has been successful against those Shanahan offenses and one of the reasons why is the linebackers he uses within his system aren’t easy mismatched in the running game or liabilities in the passing game.

Regretfully for the Cowboys, Leighton Vander Esch is the LB who most closely matches Zimmer’s style of LB play. Vander Esch, the largest linebacker in Dallas at 6-foot-4 and 256 pounds, is also likely the most disciplined. The unit’s leader in both intelligence and strength is the seasoned dramatist. After suffering an injury the previous season, his play significantly declined. Not only in the play from his free position, but also from all the LB ranks.

That specific ailment might keep the 28-year-old from playing again. Vander Esch suffers from cervical spinal stenosis and has a history of major back and neck problems, albeit this is all pure guesswork at this point. When the Cowboys placed Vander Esch on injured reserve last season, Jerry Jones hinted that his long-term future was in doubt; nothing he has said in public since has changed that assessment.

There will be work involved in resolving the LB situation in Dallas. It may need an overhaul of the entire unit rather than simply one or two individuals. That’s not to suggest that there isn’t hope for DeMarvion Overshown or Damone Clark, but even those players carry some risk and raise other questions about their stature, experience, and discipline.

One thing is certain: the Cowboys must address their defensive line problems before they can successfully implement any LB overhaul. Since an LB is only as good as the lineman in front of him, the Cowboys need to make a trade in free agency to strengthen their middle line. Fortunately for them, this is a potent class of DT free agents.

The ideal Zimmer LB is on the Cowboys’ roster. Regretfully, there’s almost little possibility he’ll ever pick up the game again.