Draft dreams fall right for Cowboys, linebacker Leighton Vander Esch

The story of linebacker Leighton Vander Esch is straight out of a Disney movie.

After playing eight-man football at Salmon River High School in Riggins, Idaho, he walked on at Boise State.

Four years later as a redshirt junior, Vander Esch finally earned a spot as a starter, and what a season he had in what would be his final season in college, recording 141 tackles in 2017 for the Broncos, including 8.5 tackles for loss and four sacks to earn Mountain West defensive player of the year honors.

The unlikely dream continued on Thursday night when the former walk-on and former eight-man football player was selected in the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft by the Dallas Cowboys.

"It made me speechless. It's the craziest moment in my life so far," said Vander Esch of hearing his name called at AT&T Stadium in front of thousands of Cowboys fans and being picked by a team he most wanted to play for. "It's been an incredible journey. I was hoping for it the whole time. I had my fingers crossed. I was praying for it ... it was just waiting for that call."

Vander Esch was not on the only one pinching himself on this fortuitous night.

It proved also to be a dream-come-true for the Cowboys, who hoped the draft would fall in place for them to get the man they wanted all along.

“We were called to trade down,” owner Jerry Jones said. ‘We never tried to trade up. We saw it coming our way. We had this player picked out early as a key unique element to how we play defense. It was coming. We felt the prudent to was to not reach. We certainly were pleased when he was there for us. We were not tempted to move up.”

With so much focus on the quarterbacks early on, the Cowboys felt the player they wanted would fall to them at No. 19.

The Cowboys resisted the urge to move up for Florida State safety Derwin James, who fell to 17th with the Los Angeles Chargers.

They had their eye on Vander Esch from the beginning in their zest to take the best player on the board as well as fill a huge need at linebacker following the departure of Anthony Hitchens to the Kansas City Chiefs in free agency.

"We were very comfortable with the way the draft was coming to us," vice president Stephen Jones said. "We felt we were going to get a really good football player. We were very comfortable sitting there. One of the reasons was Leigton. We were comfortable sitting. Once we got there and Leighton was there we were ready to make a pick."

The Cowboys made no secret of their interest in the 6-foot-4, 256-pound Vander Esch, who is big and athletic. He ran a 4.65-second 40 at the NFL Combine.

Linebackers coach Ben Bloom visited Boise State and held a private workout with Vander Esch. He was also a pre-draft visitor to the team's headquarters at The Star in Frisco.

He is an ideal fit at middle linebacker where he would replace Hitchens and allow the Cowboys to play Jaylon Smith on the strong side with Pro Bowler Sean Lee continuing to man the weak side.

"I feel like middle is my prime position," Vander Esch said. "Don’t feel like I could fit in (the defense) any better."

Vander Esch was widely ranked as the third best linebacker in the draft behind Georgia's Roquan Smith and Virginia Tech's Tremaine Edmunds, who went eighth and 16th to the Chicago Bears and Baltimore Ravens, respectively. And considering his modest and limited background as a one-year starter, he is considered to be an ascending player with a high ceiling.

“He was a walk-on at Boise,” coach Jason Garrett said. “He played eight-man. He came up the hard way. He does things the right way. We think he is a really good football player. He is a very unique guy with unique traits. He can run. He goes sideline to the sideline. He can play in the box. He can cover in pass defense. He has created turnovers throughout his career.”

Jones said Vander Esch reminded him of former Cowboys linebacker Rolando McClain and Chicago Bears Hall of Famer Brian Urlacher and expects him to make an immediate at middle and weakside linebacker in rotation with Lee and Smith, short of becoming the opening day starter in the middle.

While the Cowboys have a need at linebacker just as they do at receiver, Jones said the selection was about his unique skills. Vander Esch was the highest rated player left on their board.

"As far as the position is concerned, we could have gone a long time in this draft and not pick a linebacker," Jones said. "His unique abilities made it look like we were more sensitive at linebacker than we necessarily were."

This story was originally published April 26, 2018 at 10:40 PM with the headline "Draft dreams fall right for Cowboys, linebacker Leighton Vander Esch."