One of the big problems that the Dallas Cowboys have heading into the 2026 season is the same problem they’ve had heading into the 2025 season and the 2024 season before it–they’re lacking a strong middle linebacker. Eric Kendricks wasn’t the answer two years ago. Kenneth Murray wasn’t the answer last season. That hole is still there, but at least this time around, the Cowboys can head into this season with some confidence that their other linebacker–DeMarvion Overshown–is healthy and ready to go.
Knock on wood, of course. Overshown has had terrible luck when it comes to major knee injuries, tearing his ACL in training camp in 2023, then tearing his ACL, MCL and PCL in Week 14 of the 2024 season, an injury that kept him out until last November. Out of the 51 games the Cowboys have played since Overshown entered the league as a third-round pick, he has played just 19 of them.
But when Overshown has been healthy, he has shown himself to be an energetic, high-motor linebacker, a player the Cowboys could potentially build around in the middle.
Cowboys Hopeful on DeMarvion Overshown
For new Cowboys linebackers coach Scott Symons, hired this month after the team brought in coordinator Christian Parker from the Eagles, Overshown is already a bright spot. Granted, that’s not saying much, given the fact that the linebackers room is not exactly bustling just now, but the team is out to find more players who can match Overshown’s enthusiasm and work ethic.
“Really excited to work with the men in that room,” Symons said this week from the NFL draft combine. “I talked to [DeMarvion Overshown] and already had a chance to meet with him a couple times. He’s just an unbelievable, contagious energy when he walks in the building. That’s the type of people you wanna have an opportunity to coach and work with.”
Cowboys Rookie Struggled
Symons also expressed confidence in Cowboys’ rookie Shemar James, a fifth-round pick from Florida. James wound up playing a significant number of snaps–542 in all–in his first year, but mostly because the rest of the Cowboys’ linebackers room was in a shambles. The rookie was overmatched, but will come back next season with experience and the ability to spend more time developing.
Said Symons: “It’s a pretty cool deal with Shemar because the guy that was his [defensive coordinator and position coach for two years at Florida was my [graduate assistant] back in the day. There are a lot of similar people that I know that have coached him, and I love that I’m gonna be able to work with him.”
DeMarvion Overshown, Other LBs Should Adjust to Changes
Of course, the overall view of the Cowboys’ defense is undergoing some change as the team works to re-arrange it style of play under Parker, who has said the team will be playing more “multiple” looks, and that the base will shift from a 4-3 to a 3-4.
But Symons said that, for Overshown and whomever else the Cowboys employ in the middle, the mission won’t change much.
“Linebacker play is linebacker play,” he said. “So whether you’re in an odd front or an even front, nickel personnel, the base fundamentals of playing linebacker are footwork, block destruction, run recognition, the coverage component; but, linebacker is still linebacker. So, from a developmental standpoint, yes, there will be multiplicity within the scheme and we’re gonna build the scheme around our players, and what they do best, and continue to try and build a roster that fits what [CP] wants to do with it.”
New Cowboys Coach Sounds off on DeMarvion Overshown