Questions are going to linger at linebacker for a little bit.
Last year was a tough season for the Dallas Cowboys. They were losing games, injuries were piling up, and it became very evident early in the season that this team wasn’t going anywhere. That’s not a common thing for this organization. The team experienced a similar ordeal in 2020, but outside of that, lost seasons have not really been a thing for the Cowboys.
With all the bad things that went wrong last year, there might not have been a worse event than the DeMarvion Overshown injury. Yes, many players got hurt, and yes, one of them was a season-ending hamstring injury to the team’s franchise quarterback, Dak Prescott. But for many of the hurt players, we knew they would heal up and be ready to go next year. That’s not the case for Overshown.
A third-round pick in 2023, Overshown has been a player the team has loved from the beginning. A celebrating war room on draft day served as a testament to what they felt they got. Sadly, his rookie season was taken away from him after he suffered a torn ACL in a preseason game.
Last season, he returned, healthy as an ox, but fast as a gazelle. Overshown gave us a dose of his athleticism as he was all over the field. His length and great closing speed made him one of the defense’s top players. His playmaking ability made him worth the wait, but sadly, an injury struck again. In Week 14 against the Cincinnati Bengals, Overshown injured his knee again, but this time it was much worse. He tore his ACL, MCL, and PCL, bringing a dark cloud over the career of the team’s young defensive superstar.
According to reports, Overshown’s rehab is progressing nicely, and there is some optimism that a mid-season return could happen. When he returns and what he’s able to do this soon are big mysteries, and it’s reasonable to lower our expectations for the upcoming season. When you look at the range of outcomes, the likelihood of him either missing the entire year or coming back late and having a limited impact seems rather large. Only time will tell.
Overshown had a great debut season. Despite missing the last quarter of the season, he still finished second on the team with 90 tackles. He also finished tied for third with five sacks and had the team’s most spectacular defensive play when he tipped the ball to himself and returned an interception for a touchdown. Before his injury, he was a star in the making, but now there is this great uncertainty about what type of player he can be.
This is something the Cowboys will need to figure out sooner rather than later. With little information likely to work with from the upcoming season, the team will have a big decision to make. They can extend him next offseason before he enters the final year of his rookie contract, or they can wait and see and take their chances in free agency. This is a decision that is a lot tougher than it sounds.
The Cowboys have rolled the dice on some red flag injury risks before. Both Jaylon Smith and Terence Steele received contract extensions before the existing deals expired. Each situation was different, but in both cases, the team ultimately felt they were getting a good value on a player who was still trending upward. They guessed wrong with Smith and Steele remains a TBD who is off to a slow start.
The team also believed Michael Gallup would return to his 1,000-yard ways after his knee injury, but alas, it was not to be. The team was left with an underperforming receiver who was expected to fill the void of Amari Cooper at a discounted price.
The Overshown situation will be a huge dilemma for the Cowboys. In a perfect world, it would be nice to wait and out and see how well he does once he’s at full strength, and who is to say if that will even come while he’s still on his rookie deal. Suffice to say, if he returns to form in 2026, he’s going to elevate his market value. The agent of Agent 0 will do everything they can to preserve his financial well-being.
The front office is often criticized for waiting too long to get deals done, but one could criticize them just as much for the times they try to be proactive. How they decide to handle this situation is something that will garner a lot of attention the closer we get to his contract being up, and this one has a good chance of being a real conundrum for the Cowboys.
