Damone
Clark.
Damone
Clark.
LSU· 6'3"· 239 lb· 4.57s 40
Clark is a 6-foot-2 1/2, 239-pound stack linebacker who plays fast and forward. He diagnoses the run quickly, triggers downhill without hesitation and arrives with force, which is how a senior season turned into 135 tackles and sixteen tackles for loss.
The athletic testing backs the tape: a 4.57 forty, a 1.55 ten-yard split and a 36.5-inch vertical, with a 7.12 three-cone that says he can change direction as well as run straight. He is a willing blitzer through interior gaps and an established special teams player. In coverage the picture is less certain — he plays with his eyes in the backfield, which is an asset against the run and a liability against play action, and he can be late carrying a tight end up the seam.
A one-gap four-man front that keeps his linebacker level clean and lets him run downhill to the football on early downs rather than reading through traffic.
Year 1: core special teams with early-down linebacker snaps. Ceiling: full-time starting off-ball linebacker who handles the run and blitzes on passing downs.
A match-coverage system that leaves him alone on tight ends and running backs down the field on third down.
Keep him clean and pointed forward and the production follows.
Damone Clark LSU Highlights / Senior Season 2021
Full senior-season cut-up, the 135-tackle year that made him a draftable linebacker.
Damone Clark highlights
Pre-draft reel built around his downhill run fits and blitz reps.
Cowboys Select LB Damone Clark LSU + All-22 Highlights
All-22 breakdown assembled after Dallas took him 176th overall.
Clark was born in New Orleans and his family was displaced to Baton Rouge by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He went to Southern University Laboratory School and stayed home for college, arriving at LSU in 2018 behind Devin White.
The progression was steady and then explosive. He played thirteen games as a freshman on special teams for one tackle, then appeared in all fifteen games of the 2019 national championship season with three starts, 50 tackles, four tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks. As a junior in 2020 he tied for the team lead with 63 tackles across ten games. The senior year is what made him a prospect: LSU's staff gave him the program's No. 18 jersey, and he responded with 135 tackles, sixteen tackles for loss, 5.5 sacks, three pass breakups, two forced fumbles, an interception and a 35-yard fumble return in twelve games. He was first-team All-SEC and a second-team All-American.
Then the medical arrived. Clark needed spinal fusion surgery in March 2022, weeks before the draft, and a player with clear second-day production fell to the fifth round. Dallas selected him 176th overall knowing he would miss part of his rookie season.
- 01
Production
135 tackles, sixteen tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks as a senior, earning first-team All-SEC and second-team All-America honors.
- 02
Downhill trigger
reads run keys fast and attacks the line of scrimmage without a wasted step, finishing runs at or behind the line.
- 03
Athletic testing
4.57 forty, 1.55 ten-yard split and a 36.5-inch vertical at 239 pounds, athleticism that translates to sideline range.
- 04
Blitz value
5.5 sacks from off the ball as a senior, timing interior pressure well and converting it into finished plays.
- 05
Special teams background
four years of coverage-unit work at LSU, the floor that keeps a rookie linebacker dressed on Sundays.
- 01
Medical
spinal fusion surgery in March 2022, a procedure serious enough to cost him the first seven games of his rookie year.
- 02
Coverage instincts
eyes stay in the backfield, so play action pulls him forward and he arrives late to routes behind him.
- 03
Block deconstruction
struggles to disengage when a guard climbs to the second level and reaches him before he can slip the block.
- 04
One-year sample
a single dominant season after three years of limited defensive production raises questions about the true baseline.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.57sp50
- Vertical
- 36.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 127inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.12sp50
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | LSU | 13 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | LSU | 15 | 50 | 3.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | LSU | 10 | 63 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2021 | LSU | 12 | 135 | 5.5 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| Career | — | 50 | 249 | 10 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
Season lines follow the Sports-Reference defensive log with bowl games included in 2018, 2019 and 2021, and they sum exactly to the career row: 249 tackles, 24 tackles for loss, ten sacks, four pass breakups, two forced fumbles and one fumble recovery returned 35 yards. cfbstats lists his 2021 season slightly higher at 137 tackles and 15.5 tackles for loss; the Sports-Reference figures are used throughout so the seasons reconcile with the career total, and the difference is left visible rather than averaged. It also credits him with two quarterback hurries in 2021. Fumble recoveries are zero in every season before 2021.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Downhill run-defending linebacker who starts when the scheme suits him and rotates out when it does not.
Late-round linebacker whose tackle volume and range turn into a long run as a full-time defensive starter.
Special teams linebacker who holds a roster spot for years without ever locking down a defensive job.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
The medical cost him half a rookie year and nothing more. Clark was activated from the non-football injury list on October 5, 2022, played his first game in Week 8 against Chicago with six tackles, made his first start in Week 11 and put up eleven tackles against Jacksonville in Week 15, finishing with 47 tackles and two forced fumbles in ten games.
The second year was the payoff: seventeen starts, 109 tackles, three pass breakups and a ten-tackle playoff start against Green Bay. Then the scheme changed. Mike Zimmer arrived in 2024 and Clark's snaps collapsed behind Eric Kendricks, DeMarvion Overshown and Marist Liufau — fourteen games, two starts, 28 tackles. Matt Eberflus kept him a backup in 2025 and Dallas waived him on November 18, after which Houston claimed him for six games of special teams work. Detroit signed him to a one-year deal in March 2026 and placed him on injured reserve in August. For a fifth-rounder with a spinal fusion on his chart, 212 career tackles and a full season as a starting linebacker is a clear return on the pick.