Leighton Vander Esch

OLB · DAL · 2018–2023

Born February 8, 1996 · College Boise State · Drafted 2018, round 1, pick 19 (DAL) · 6-4, 255 lb

2nd-team All-Pro (2018) · Pro Bowl (2018)

Defence

Counting stats from the play-by-play credits (QB hits from 2006, tackles for loss and passes defensed from 2009).

Season	Team	G	Tackles	Sacks	QB hits	Tackles for loss	INT	Passes defensed	Forced fumbles
2018	DAL	16	140	0.0	1	2	2	7	0
2018 playoffs	DAL	2	14	0.0	0	0	0	0	0
2019	DAL	9	72	0.5	1	1	0	3	1
2020	DAL	10	60	1.0	1	1	0	0	1
2021	DAL	17	77	1.0	1	4	1	2	0
2021 playoffs	DAL	1	13	0.0	0	0	0	0	0
2022	DAL	13	90	1.0	1	4	0	1	1
2022 playoffs	DAL	2	20	0.0	0	0	0	2	0
2023	DAL	5	30	0.0	0	1	0	0	0
Career	DAL	70	469	3.5	5	13	3	13	3

Honours

Honours: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), matched to players through Wikidata (CC0). Awards and All-Pro teams are the Associated Press’s; Pro Bowl selections include replacements.

Season	Honours
2018	2nd-team All-Pro, Pro Bowl

Playing time

Scrimmage snaps from 2016, in the games he played (share: of his team’s snaps in those games). A season’s snaps appear after its playoffs, when the data is published. Who was on the field: NFL Next Gen Stats via nflverse (2016–22) and FTN Data via nflverse (2023 on), CC BY-SA 4.0. Aggregated by Red Zone Math; this table is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0 too.

Season	Team	G	Offensive snaps	Share of the offence’s snaps	Defensive snaps	Share of the defence’s snaps
2018	DAL	16	–	–	772	76.4
2018 playoffs	DAL	2	–	–	106	83.5
2019	DAL	9	–	–	500	85.8
2020	DAL	10	–	–	451	67.2
2021	DAL	17	1	1.2	648	57.4
2021 playoffs	DAL	1	–	–	56	86.2
2022	DAL	14	–	–	732	78.9
2022 playoffs	DAL	2	–	–	135	92.5
2023	DAL	5	–	–	264	88.3

Game logs

2023 game log (5 games)

2023 game log

Week	Date	Opponent	Result	Tackles
1	2023-09-10	@ NYG	W 40–0	6
2	2023-09-17	vs NYJ	W 30–10	4
3	2023-09-24	@ ARI	L 16–28	3
4	2023-10-01	vs NE	W 38–3	7
5	2023-10-08	@ SF	L 10–42	10

2022 game log (15 games)

2022 game log

Week	Date	Opponent	Result	Tackles	Sacks	PD
1	2022-09-11	vs TB	L 3–19	9	0.0	0
2	2022-09-18	vs CIN	W 20–17	7	1.0	1
3	2022-09-26	@ NYG	W 23–16	3	0.0	0
4	2022-10-02	vs WAS	W 25–10	8	0.0	0
5	2022-10-09	@ LA	W 22–10	5	0.0	0
6	2022-10-16	@ PHI	L 17–26	7	0.0	0
7	2022-10-23	vs DET	W 24–6	10	0.0	0
8	2022-10-30	vs CHI	W 49–29	8	0.0	0
10	2022-11-13	@ GB	L 28–31 OT	7	0.0	0
11	2022-11-20	@ MIN	W 40–3	3	0.0	0
12	2022-11-24	vs NYG	W 28–20	8	0.0	0
13	2022-12-04	vs IND	W 54–19	1	0.0	0
14	2022-12-11	vs HOU	W 27–23	14	0.0	0
P19	2023-01-16	@ TB	W 31–14	9	0.0	2
P20	2023-01-22	@ SF	L 12–19	11	0.0	0

2021 game log (18 games)

2021 game log

Week	Date	Opponent	Result	Tackles	Sacks	INT	PD
1	2021-09-09	@ TB	L 29–31	2	0.0	0	0
2	2021-09-19	@ LAC	W 20–17	7	1.0	0	0
3	2021-09-27	vs PHI	W 41–21	4	0.0	0	0
4	2021-10-03	vs CAR	W 36–28	5	0.0	0	0
5	2021-10-10	vs NYG	W 44–20	5	0.0	0	0
6	2021-10-17	@ NE	W 35–29 OT	3	0.0	0	0
8	2021-10-31	@ MIN	W 20–16	3	0.0	0	0
9	2021-11-07	vs DEN	L 16–30	12	0.0	0	0
10	2021-11-14	vs ATL	W 43–3	3	0.0	0	0
11	2021-11-21	@ KC	L 9–19	2	0.0	0	0
12	2021-11-25	vs LV	L 33–36	3	0.0	0	0
13	2021-12-02	@ NO	W 27–17	1	0.0	0	0
14	2021-12-12	@ WAS	W 27–20	4	0.0	0	1
15	2021-12-19	@ NYG	W 21–6	3	0.0	0	0
16	2021-12-26	vs WAS	W 56–14	4	0.0	0	0
17	2022-01-02	vs ARI	L 22–25	10	0.0	0	0
18	2022-01-08	@ PHI	W 51–26	6	0.0	1	1
P19	2022-01-16	vs SF	L 17–23	13	0.0	0	0

2020 game log (10 games)

2020 game log

Week	Date	Opponent	Result	Tackles	Sacks
1	2020-09-13	@ LA	L 17–20	3	0.0
6	2020-10-19	vs ARI	L 10–38	3	0.0
7	2020-10-25	@ WAS	L 3–25	12	0.0
8	2020-11-01	@ PHI	L 9–23	2	1.0
9	2020-11-08	vs PIT	L 19–24	6	0.0
11	2020-11-22	@ MIN	W 31–28	12	0.0
12	2020-11-26	vs WAS	L 16–41	7	0.0
13	2020-12-08	@ BAL	L 17–34	5	0.0
14	2020-12-13	@ CIN	W 30–7	7	0.0
15	2020-12-20	vs SF	W 41–33	3	0.0

2019 game log (9 games)

2019 game log

Week	Date	Opponent	Result	Tackles	Sacks	PD
1	2019-09-08	vs NYG	W 35–17	10	0.5	1
2	2019-09-15	@ WAS	W 31–21	5	0.0	0
3	2019-09-22	vs MIA	W 31–6	6	0.0	1
4	2019-09-29	@ NO	L 10–12	11	0.0	0
5	2019-10-06	vs GB	L 24–34	9	0.0	0
6	2019-10-13	@ NYJ	L 22–24	10	0.0	0
7	2019-10-20	vs PHI	W 37–10	3	0.0	0
10	2019-11-10	vs MIN	L 24–28	13	0.0	0
11	2019-11-17	@ DET	W 35–27	5	0.0	1

2018 game log (18 games)

2018 game log

Week	Date	Opponent	Result	Tackles	INT	PD
1	2018-09-09	@ CAR	L 8–16	3	0	0
2	2018-09-16	vs NYG	W 20–13	7	0	0
3	2018-09-23	@ SEA	L 13–24	10	0	0
4	2018-09-30	vs DET	W 26–24	6	0	0
5	2018-10-07	@ HOU	L 16–19 OT	14	0	0
6	2018-10-14	vs JAX	W 40–7	10	0	1
7	2018-10-21	@ WAS	L 17–20	4	0	0
9	2018-11-05	vs TEN	L 14–28	9	0	1
10	2018-11-11	@ PHI	W 27–20	13	1	1
11	2018-11-18	@ ATL	W 22–19	8	1	3
12	2018-11-22	vs WAS	W 31–23	8	0	1
13	2018-11-29	vs NO	W 13–10	10	0	0
14	2018-12-09	vs PHI	W 29–23 OT	6	0	0
15	2018-12-16	@ IND	L 0–23	8	0	0
16	2018-12-23	vs TB	W 27–20	15	0	0
17	2018-12-30	@ NYG	W 36–35	9	0	0
P18	2019-01-05	vs SEA	W 24–22	10	0	0
P19	2019-01-12	@ LA	L 22–30	4	0	0