DeMarvion Overshown has spent five weeks watching a defense he was supposed to run. On Tuesday, after practice, the Dallas Cowboys linebacker said the wait is about to end, and he talked about what the last few years have taken out of him.
“I’m a people pleaser. I wanna see everybody happy,” Overshown said. “I wanna see the fans happy seeing me out there play. But like I say, it’s just mainly my teammates, my family, me, myself going through what I done been through these last couple years. It’s like, yeah, being on the field is my saving grace.”
Asked whether his chance comes this week, he said: “Man, I definitely feel that, that’s the plan.” The Cowboys play at the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday night, which gives him one more day than usual. “We play on Monday now, so now I got to wait the extra day, but I’m excited,” he said. “I’ve definitely taken this rehab, this recovery very serious. I’ve been trying to get back on the field since the week after I got out.”
Five games out with a hamstring
Overshown hurt his hamstring late in the season opener, a 28-20 loss to the New York Giants on September 13, after making seven tackles. Head coach Brian Schottenheimer first expected him back in a week or two. He has missed the five games since, and Dallas went 2-3 in them. On Monday, Schottenheimer said the team was hoping he would return this week, and Dallas needs him now that linebacker Dee Winters is likely out with an Achilles strain.
Injuries have followed Overshown through his career. He missed all of his rookie season in 2023 after tearing an ACL in the preseason. In 2024 he had 90 tackles, five sacks and a pick-six against the Giants on Thanksgiving in 13 games before a second knee injury in December ended his year. He did not play again until mid-November 2025. Counting the opener, he has played in 20 of the Cowboys’ 57 regular-season games since 2023.
He said he has not been far from the team. “I actually worked into some team drills the last couple of weeks, just staying fresh on the football, still getting rehab as well during the whole process,” he said. “Still been in every meeting, every walkthrough. So I’m still locked in.”
Overshown was supposed to wear the green-dot helmet, the one with the radio that carries the defensive calls, this season. Rookie Jaishawn Barham has had it since Overshown got hurt. Overshown said he did not know whether he would get it back. “I don’t know how it’s gonna play out, but I guess I’m gonna be out there, and that’s enough for me,” he said. “I feel like that’s enough to impact the game, too, just being out there, whether it’s with the green dot the whole time or not.”
“Punching the walls” won’t change the results
Dallas is 2-4 after a 23-13 loss at Green Bay on Sunday night, its second defeat in a row. Overshown said the defense keeps losing games to its own mistakes. “Offenses, they win games by explosive plays and the other team making mistakes,” he said. “So once we can clean that up and play mistake-free football, which has been the key in all of our talks these last week or so, it’s just like, how can we not beat ourselves?”
He did not want to call the mood angry. “I would say as competitors, you want to play better, you want to win,” he said. “No matter how we feel, whether we come in here smiling or whether we come in here punching the walls, the results not going to change until we take it upon ourselves to do what we got to do to change it.”
Clark gets his first sack, at Lambeau
Defensive tackle Kenny Clark, who spent nine seasons with the Packers before the August 2025 trade for Micah Parsons, got his first sack of the season in his first game back at Lambeau Field. With 2:08 left in the third quarter and Green Bay ahead 20-7, he dropped Jordan Love at the Packers’ 4 for a 10-yard loss.
Clark said he got a one-on-one matchup with the center and beat him with a quick move, “just something that we’ve been working on all week.” Asked whether it took a weight off his back, he said: “Yeah, you get that weight off your back. Now it’s just about building.” Dallas sacked Love three times, with Quinnen Williams and Elijah Garcia getting the others.
Clark said he was surprised that the Cowboys and the Eagles are both 2-4. “You never go into a season expecting yourself to be two and four,” he said. But with the Giants leading the NFC East at 3-2-1 and Washington at 1-4-1, he said the division is still open. “Everything’s in front of us, but we still got to be urgent and not expect that to happen every week,” Clark said. “It all starts with the division win against the Eagles.”
Gary: “You can’t be angry”
Outside linebacker Rashan Gary, another former Packer, had three quarterback hits on Sunday but no sack. He said pressure snowballs once it starts. “Once you get it rolling, the ball starts rolling, it starts rolling fast,” he said. “You might not get the numbers, but if you have a certain move that the coach talked about or emphasized and you’re winning on it consistently throughout that game, you just got to be consistent.”
Asked if he was angry, he said no. “I’m excited, man. You can’t be angry,” Gary said. “Another great thing about this game is you can lose one week and you come back the next week and be on top of the world.”
Wide receiver Ryan Flournoy, who caught seven passes for 40 yards and scored Dallas’ late touchdown on a 6-yard catch, said the offense needs balance after the Cowboys ran just 15 times to Dak Prescott’s 54 passes. “We got a dominant running back,” Flournoy said. “I think we need to feed him more and just really just put the whole offense together.”
The Cowboys play at the Eagles on Monday, October 26, at 8:15 p.m. ET.
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