Predicting Dallas Cowboys 2020 depth chart: Linebackers

By Randy Gurzi | Jul 20, 2020

DETROIT, MI - NOVEMBER 17: Jaylon Smith #54 and Leighton Vander Esch #55 of the Dallas Cowboys celebrate a third down stop during the second quarter of the game against the Detroit Lions at Ford Field on November 17, 2019 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images) /

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Dallas Cowboys, Jaylon Smith (Photo by Corey Perrine/Getty Images) /

Predicting the Dallas Cowboys 2020 LB depth chart

The Dallas Cowboys have a talented group of linebackers, although 2019 wasn’t their best campaign. Jaylon Smith had earned a massive contract before the season began and the team was thrilled to give this to him.

A second-round pick in 2016 out of Notre Dame, Smith redshirted his rookie season thanks to a nasty knee injury that threatened his career. He returned in year two but was dealing with drop-foot and had to wear an A.F.O brake on his knee.

With the brace gone in 2018, he finally broke out and was arguably the best defender for Dallas that entire season. For that reason, he was given a multi-year extension but then he quickly became one of the more criticized defenders in 2019 when his effectiveness went down.

Part of that could have been due to the loss of Leighton Vander Esch, who was a star as a rookie in 2018 but missed the end of the 2019 campaign with a neck injury. Without him on the field, Smith may have been trying to overcompensate — but even so, the anger directed at him was overblown.

Smith is still a stellar linebacker as is LVE, who is hopeful to be back to 100 percent this season. If he is, the Cowboys will continue to have one of the best young linebacker duos in the NFL. But how deep are they behind these two?

That’s the question we answer here as we look at the Dallas Cowboys depth chart and see where they stand at linebacker for the 2020 season.

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