OXNARD, Calif. — Adversity is the knife designed to carve away our outer layers to reveal who we truly are, if we allow it, and Damone Clark understands this all too well. He went from an All-American linebacker and national champion at LSU, and likely top-15 pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, to an unexpected spinal fusion surgery that offseason that led to him being selected in the fourth round.
But, as Fate would have it, it was the Dallas Cowboys who discovered the issue in his neck during the pre-draft process before also repairing it and, ultimately, drafting him in April — Clark then bucking the odds by returning to the field only six months later.
Fast forward to 2023 and Clark found himself being, almost literally, the only linebacker on the active roster before it was all said-and-done, operating on an island with safeties attempting to help at the position; and then his beloved mentor, Leighton Vander Esch, was forced into medical retirement by yet another neck injury of his own.
He now finds himself surrounded by a stable of other talent, including former First-Team All-Pro linebacker Eric Kendricks and DeMarvion Overshown, now returned from a redshirt season due to a torn ACL, rookie third-round pick Marist Liufau, UFL standout Willie Harvey Jr. and more.
"It's good to have them here," said Clark after the Cowboys' third padded practice. "We all come out here every day and compete with each other, and make each other better. EK is the vet in the room — he's learning from us and we're learning from him. We need guys like that.
"Everybody in there wanna win. We wanna see each other win. That's the biggest thing."
Yes, it is the biggest thing, and the Cowboys have to be pleased, at least thus far, with what they're already seeing on the field in Oxnard and that especially includes Clark's trajectory. As a related aside, he's now vacated No. 33 to take ownership of No. 18, a very special number in the hearts of LSU players and staff that Clark was once voted to wear in his days in Death Valley.
Much like Jalen Tolbert on the other side of the ball, Clark has rediscovered himself.
"Everything, and that's why I switched to it," he explained. "I'm going back to the root of things. I'm going out there and having fun. This is a game I've been playing my whole life. Last year, it got too far ahead of me sometimes. I was too high sometimes and too low sometimes. The biggest thing for me is now finding that neutral mindset and, at the end of the day, it's all just a game that I've been playing since I was five years old."
Anyone who's kept an eye on Clark can readily attest to the way he's been flying around the field to make plays in Oxnard in both coverage and in run defense — the latter showing an explosiveness and, more importantly, a decisiveness that harkens back to his days at LSU.
"I like the space that I'm in," Clark said. "I feel like I'm in the right spot for me to succeed. I'm just out there having fun, really."
A large part of the reason Clark is able to play more freely is, as noted, the presence of Kendricks and the leadership that stems from that, but also in the fact Clark is able to move mostly from MIKE (middle linebacker and green dot play communicator) to a flux between [mostly] SAM (strongside LB) and WILL (weakside LB) to capitalize on his instincts.
It's paying off in a big way to start training camp, as is the fact he has no concerns regarding his fellow linebackers' ability to either make plays and/or to conquer their assignment on a rep-to-rep basis.
For the first time in years, the LBs room in Dallas is wildly symbiotic.
"It's fun," said Clark. "We all go in there everyday just ready to get better. We all spend time outside of the classroom and, on the field, we all go out there and compete. That's the nature of the business — we all wanna compete."
To that point, Clark has no plans on allowing distance to creep in between him and Vander Esch, and made it clear he'll continue to send the former Pro Bowler film to get his opinion on things Clark needs to key in on and improve upon as the seasons progress; but there's also another layer being added to his library of mentors.
Sean Lee.
Recently, Clark attended a retirement ceremony for Vander Esch and that's where Vander Esch connected Clark with former two-time Pro Bowl linebacker Sean Lee — he and Lee exchanging phone numbers to remain in contact going forward with the goal of Clark picking his brain as well.
Lee was forced to medically retire as well, in 2021, but remains one of the most highly-regarded football minds to ever grace the sport and an extremely willing mentor who helped get LVE up to speed when the two played alongside each other in the late 2010s.
To say there's a wealth of information to be gleaned from the minds of LVE and Lee would be a massive understatement, and the more Clark can absorb from them, the better he'll become over the course of his NFL career.
"Having a guy like Leighton and Sean Lee — I told [them] I'm a sponge," he said of the two former Cowboys' linebackers. "I can never [learn] too much. This is my third year but second full season, and anything I can do to get better, I'm gonna do it."
It's shaping up to potentially be the best year of Clark's young career, all things considered, and he's not simply content to become great himself, seeing how much he's leaning into transitioning from the bright-eyed mentee under LVE and Micah Parsons to being the mentor for the stable of young talent in the room.
Clark is embracing the duty of paying his learnings forward, whether it be walking Overshown through his return from a devastating injury to helping Kendricks in the coaching up of Liufau and others — e.g., undrafted linebackers Jason Johnson and Brock Mogensen.
"I told him to just go out there and play," Clark said of his relationship with Overshown, as one example. "The training staff wouldn't put you in that position if they didn't think you were ready. For myself, my rookie season, I played and I was still hesitant at times myself but, at the end of the day, we're trusting in one God and God got you covered.
"I remember when it happened in Seattle, in the locker room I said a prayer with him. … That's my brother, man. When I got here, Leighton and Micah embraced me, so it's only right I do the same."
For Clark, in 2024, it's as much about rediscovering himself as it is seeking wise counsel as it is being wise counsel for others who need it. It's a cycle of progress he and the Cowboys always envisioned would find its way to him and, having now arrived, it is helping both Clark and the linebackers' room as a whole take huge strides this summer.
The bottom line is a simple one: greatness isn't simply finding it inside of you, but also in how many others you can bring it out of.
Clark is hellbent on doing both.
