Chronically Injured Cowboys Defender Playing for ‘Job Security’

There’s little doubt Dallas Cowboys inside linebacker DeMarvion Overshown can be a dominant NFL player.

There’s also little doubt, at this point, that Overshown will ever be able to play an entire season without getting hurt.

The Athletic’s Jon Machota singled out Overshown as the player on the Dallas roster with the “most on the line” in 2026.

“Three players immediately come to mind: Overshown, LT Tyler Guyton and WR George Pickens,” Machota wrote. “Overshown gets the nod because he’s in the final year of his rookie contract. Guyton will likely have another season in Dallas even if this one doesn’t go well. Pickens is likely getting paid well by the Cowboys or another team in free agency next year. Overshown doesn’t have that type of job security. When healthy, he’s easily Dallas’ best linebacker. But significant knee injuries have caused him to miss 32 games over the last three seasons. A strong, full season likely leads to a quality new deal. But if he’s unable to stay on the field, Overshown could be left with underwhelming contract offers.”

Overshown Might Still Have Elite Upside

The assumption about Overshown after 3 seasons, as bad as it sounds, that the longer he stays on the field, the more likely it is he’s going to get hurt.

Overshown, for all his talent, has been missing for almost the entirety of his 1st 3 NFL seasons due to injuries — a pair of catastrophic knee injuries that have cost him 32 out of a possible 51 regular-season games.

Still, what fans did get to see in the 1 sort-of full season Overshown got to play in 2024 has been enough to keep expectations for him sky-high, and CBS Sports NFL reporter Zach Pereles tabbed him as the most likely “Breakout Candidate” for the Cowboys in 2026.

“Amid a dismal 2024 season for Dallas, DeMarvion Overshown was a bright spot, registering 90 tackles, eight tackles for loss, five sacks, and a pick-six in just 13 games,” Pereles wrote in June. “The third-round pick from 2023 looked to be coming into his own and then some after missing all of his rookie year with a torn ACL. Then he suffered another brutal injury — torn ACL, MCL and PCL — near the end of the year. He returned for six games last year. Perhaps the injuries have taken too much of a toll, but a year-plus removed from the injury, he can be the athletic, talented playmaker the Cowboys desperately need at linebacker.”

Overshown Made Elite List of Off-Ball Linebackers

It was a bit shocking to see Overshown land on ESPN’s annual lists of the Top 10 players at every position, at No. 8 on its list of the best off-ball linebackers before the 2025 season.

Overshown suffered his second season-ending knee injury in 3 years in Week 14 of the 2024 season against the Cincinnati Bengals, tearing his ACL, PCL, and MCL.

Overshown was in the middle of a breakout season and through 13 games had 90 tackles, 5.0 sacks, 8 TFL, 1 forced fumble, 1 fumble recovery, 4 pass deflections, and 1 interception returned for a touchdown.

Overshown tore his ACL in the second preseason game of his rookie year in 2022. Following his 2024 injury, he told The Dallas Morning News’ Calvin Watkins he could rejoin the Cowboys in Week 13 for their Thanksgiving Day game against the Kansas City Chiefs. — and that was the game he returned.

“Overshown needed only 12 NFL games to convince a healthy number of voters that he’s a high-impact linebacker,” ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler wrote in July 2025. “Multiple voters have serious concerns about whether Overshown can maintain a consistent NFL career because of the damage already done.”

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