November 11, 2018: Dallas first-round draft pick Leighton Vander Esch makes his first NFL interception, part of his best performance yet on the league’s biggest weekly stage as the Cowboys win 27-20 at Philadelphia. The former Boise State star picked off Carson Wentz in the first quarter and returned it 28 yards, and Dallas cashed in with a field goal. Vander Esch also recorded 13 tackles, highlighted by one for a five-yard loss on a third-and-two with less than two minutes remaining with the Eagles driving.
It was Vander Esch’s fourth double-digit tackle game of his rookie year, and NBC named him its Player of the Game on Sunday Night Football. He’d add NFC Defensive Player of the Week honors two days later. LVE followed the interception against the Eagles with another the following week at Atlanta and would be named NFC Defensive Rookie of the Month for November. But his tackles were his most-tracked stat during his rookie year. Vander Esch made a Cowboys rookie-record 140 stops during the regular season, playing in all 16 games and starting 11. He was third overall in NFL tackles.
Vander Esch celebrated that initial pick, and almost every other big play he made, by cupping his hands around his facemask and letting out a wolf howl. USA Today was intrigued enough to do a story on it. Growing up in Riggins, Vander Esch would often go hunting with his dad Darwin (he’d been doing that since he was a toddler), and wolves and bears were often the assignment. The Cowboys clued in on it and nicknamed him the “Wolf Hunter”. They’d play a wolf howl on the PA system at AT&T Stadium, and fans quickly joined in.
But chronic neck problems eventually caught up with Vander Esch. He missed six games in 2018 due to a nerve issue in his neck, and he broke his collarbone in Week 1 of the 2019 season and was out for another six games. The trend was not good, and the Cowboys declined Vander Esch’s fifth-year option with the team in 2021 (for the following season). He responded by playing all 17 games and making 77 tackles with one interception and one sack. Dallas signed Vander Esch to a one-year deal in 2022, and he amassed 90 tackles, but he missed the final four games of the regular season with a neck stinger.
In 2023, Vander Esch scored his first NFL touchdown in Week 4 on an 11-yard fumble return versus the New England Patriots. But the very next week, he suffered another neck injury and was soon placed on injured reserve. The following March, LVE medically retired from football and penned an emotional farewell letter to Dallas fans and players, including this: “To my exceptional teammates, former and current, I owe you everything. I look forward to addressing you formally and privately later, but please know that I love and respect all of you, and not having the opportunity to be around you is what will hurt most of all.”
His Boise State career goes without saying, but we’ll talk about it anyway. LVE was a walk-on in 2015 from Salmon River High School, where as a senior he threw for 28 touchdowns and rushed for 34—an incredible 62 TDs combined. His Boise State playing time as a true freshman was spotty, but it grew his sophomore year. By his junior season in 2017, Vander Esch was the focal point of the Broncos defense and was named Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year. He ended his Boise State career with a dominant performance against Oregon and Justin Herbert in the Las Vegas Bowl.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
