3 Cowboys playing their way off the roster in 2023

One of the only negatives to drafting well is how hard it becomes to keep everyone on the same roster. That’s going to become true for the Dallas Cowboys, who have been making several great selections in the NFL Draft for years now.

They’re already cap-strapped thanks to having to re-sign a few players from their impressive 2016 class. Now, they have more talented players set to hit the open market, and Dallas might have no choice but to let them walk.

Here, we look at three players who have done well enough to make it hard for Dallas to afford them.

3 Cowboys playing their way off the roster in 2023

3. Leighton Vander Esch, Linebacker

Despite drawing interest from two AFC teams, Leighton Vander Esch returned to the Cowboys on a one-year deal ahead of the 2022 season. When he was re-signed, he said he felt his best football was ahead of him and expressed his excitement to work with Dan Quinn for another year.

He’s far from the first player to make such a claim, but with LVE, he’s been proving himself correct. A star as a rookie in 2018, Vander Esch struggled through the next three seasons, but has made a comeback this year.

According to Pro Football Focus, Vander Esch has 76 tackles and one sack through the first 13 weeks and is the 25th-best linebacker in the NFL. That’s a far cry from what we saw in 2020 and 2021.

Of course, that desire to play for Quinn might be enough to get him to return again in 2023. But that might not be the case, as he could demand more on the open market than what Dallas can pay right now.