Sean Lee has started 75 career games, but he will miss his 43rd career game on Sunday and another game or two or three after that. His left hamstring will keep him sidelined two to four weeks.
That means rookie Leighton Vander Esch, who has played only 78 career snaps, will get his first start against the Lions.
“You can’t stress yourself out if things are too hard or not,” Vander Esch said Wednesday. “You’re here for a reason and you have to trust yourself in that because you wouldn’t be here if you’re not supposed to be. You have to have full confidence in yourself.
“You can’t be back on your heels. You’ve got to be on your toes, and you’ve got to be in attack mode all the time. That’s the approach I take with things. I can’t sit back. I have got to go, go, go all the time.”
Having used a first-round pick on Vander Esch this spring, the Cowboys appear better equipped to deal with Lee’s absence this season. Despite his limited snaps, Vander Esch ranks fourth on the team with 20 tackles, 16 solo.
“Yeah, hopefully Jaylon [Smith] is just much further along as a player with experience and where he is physically,” Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said. “Obviously we drafted Leighton Vander Esch in the first round. We feel good about where he is and his development over the first couple of weeks, and we just like that linebacking corps starting with those guys. Damien Wilson is a better player than he was, and he continues to grow and develop from the experience that he has. We like what Joe Thomas is doing. We just feel good about that group, mainly those first couple of guys that I mentioned, I just think they’re further along and we’ll figure out where they are. Obviously, Sean is a big-time player. Sean played a great game the other day before his injury. He was all over the place, very productive. He’ll be engaged with our guys and hope those guys will be ready to go.”