While Dallas Cowboys inside linebacker DeMarvion Overshown has suffered 1 injury setback after another throughout his career, he hasn’t seemed to lose much esteem among his contemporaries.
Translation: No matter how much he gets hurt, people still think he’s a baller.
Overshown, healthy once again in 2026, received some high praise from NFL.com’s Kevin Patra, who predicts he will earn his 1st Pro Bowl selection this season.
“I’m excited to see a healthy DeMarvion Overshown in Christian Parker’s defense,” Patra wrote. “When he’s on the field, the linebacker brings speed, length and playmaking to the middle of the unit. He’s like a magnet to the pigskin. Injuries are the only thing to slow the 26-year-old, causing him to miss 32 regular-season games over his first three years. With an improved scheme and significantly better surrounding players, Overshown profiles as the lightning bolt of the revamped D in Dallas.”
Disturbing Run of Injuries for DeMarvion Overshown
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 played 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. “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 Still on ESPN’s List of Top 10 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.”
Injury-Prone Cowboys Star Predicted for Career Breakthrough