Former Cowboys LB Leighton Vander Esch retires from football after a career of beating daunting odds

After he was cut by the Dallas Cowboys last weekend, linebacker Leighton Vander Esch is set to announce his retirement on Monday, per multiple reports.

The 28-year-old linebacker arrived to the NFL as a first-round draft pick in 2018, leading to a six-year career with the Cowboys. Vander Esch's best football came as a rookie, when he earned second-Team All-Pro honors after totaling 140 tackles.

After that, although Vander Esch's game took a step back, he was a reliable starter whose value was often overlooked. As the communicator of the defense, his presence on the field was an important factor on a Cowboys defense that's #1 in EPA/play over the last three seasons.

Vander Esch's goodbye to playing football wasn't exactly something no one saw coming. Since his draft process, reports emerged on teams taking him off their draft boards due to injury red flags.

But none of that mattered for Vander Esch, who was no stranger to adversity by the time he got to playing in the pros. This is somebody who played eight-man football at Salmon River High and left for college as a no-star recruit. He received no scholarship offers and walked on at Boise State.

His collegiate career got off to a slow start, being a backup as a freshman and suffering a neck injury in 2016 that knocked him out for a good chunk of his sophomore year.

It didn't matter. Shortly after that, he emerged as a star as a junior in 2017, being named Defensive Player of the Year of the Mountain West conference. The same eight-man football player went on to become a first-rounder.

Not tired of overcoming daunting odds, Vander Esch did it again at the highest level of football. He ignored the neck issues that kept teams from picking him in the draft and went on to play 71 games in the NFL.  

Nothing but respect for No. 55, the Wolf Hunter.