LB Shaquille Leonard has ended his visit with Dallas Cowboys. Will they get a deal done?
The Dallas Cowboys hosted linebacker Shaquille Leonard on a visit to the team’s headquarters at the Star in Frisco on Tuesday.
They checked his health.
And he had lunch with owner Jerry Jones.
Coach Mike McCarthy met with him.
But the visit ended without the Cowboys being able to get a deal done with the former four-time All-Pro, who was cut by the Indianapolis Colts last week?
Leonard has a visit with the Philadelphia Eagles up next.
According a source, the visit went well but Leonard wanted to look at his other options.
“We’ll see where it ends up,” the source said.
But there is no question that the Cowboys are interested in added Leonard to the roster.
“It’s not real hard to look and see what a player he’s been. He’s been outstanding during his career. We want to check his health. See where he is currently. That’s what he’s doing right now as we’re speaking. And I’ll have a little lunch with him while he’s here,” Jones said on his radio show on 105.3 The Fan.
“A player like him. You don’t have any questions. His contribution away from the football team is well known. .... He’s a big positive on a team. He has great respect (from his teammates). Has great experience. ... When you’ve played as long as he’s played, at the level he’s played, then this isn’t a hard scouting job.”
Leonard is the not the same player he was earlier in his career due to nerve issue in his back that limited him to just three games in 2022 and required two back surgeries within six months.
He was a part time player for the Colts for much of this season before being released.
What he can do for the Cowboys is help bolster the team’s run defense. With Leighton Vander Esch out of the season with the neck injury, the Cowboys are thin at linebacker in terms of size and experience.
Second-year man Markquese Bell has replaced Vander Esch in the starting lineup next to second-year man Damone Clark. Bell is talented but he is light ast 6-foot-3, 205 pounds. Rashaan Evans, a former first-round pick in 2018 by the Tennessee Titans, is rotating in.
None have the skill and pedigree of Leonard.
“Where he is healthwise is what it’s all about as far as evaluating anything,” Jones.