Dallas Cowboys season opening 53-man roster prediction

Linebackers (5)

Leighton Vander Esch, Jaylon Smith, Micah Parsons, Jabrill Cox, Keanu Neal

The linebacker room sees one less person with the exclusion of Luke Gifford. The former Cornhusker has played fine thus far but the team currently has enough big guys to play on special teams with guys like Nick Ralston, Simi Fehoko, Bradlee Anae, Dorance Armstrong, and Chauncey Gholston.

Micah Parsons has been every bit the swiss army knife analysts hoped he’d be coming out of college and Jabrill Cox has turned into a valuable run-stuffing linebacker. Talk about a complete 180, both linebackers seemingly switched skill sets.

Leighton Vander Esch has had a solid preseason. He hasn’t had the impact either rookie has had thus far, but his experience and instincts should bode well when he gets more playing time as the season progresses. He, next to athletic linebackers in Cox and Parsons should give the team confidence that they can cover the middle of the field from base defense looks.

Mike McCarthy stated that former Atlanta Falcon Keanu Neal would be one of the starting Nickel linebackers alongside Micah Parsons. Neal is moving a lot better in the hook and curl zone than in the deep areas of the field while displaying good play-making ability to create fumbles and pass deflections.

Jaylon Smith will be on this team until the Cowboys can get no more value out of him. He might be stashed down the depth chart, but that is their problem to deal with. It’s understood that if he doesn’t touch the field as much that the Cowboys would have upgraded their linebacker corps from a year ago.

The Dallas Cowboys now have one of the most versatile linebacker groups in all the NFL and it all started with a draft selection that was much maligned by analysts, me included.