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Todd Archer, ESPN Staff Writer
FRISCO, Texas — If you didn’t hear from DeMarvion Overshown last week, the Dallas Cowboys linebacker apologizes. He simply couldn’t respond to everybody.
It seemed like every time the interception he returned for a touchdown on Thanksgiving Day against the New York Giants was replayed on television or social media, Overshown’s phone buzzed. Immediately after the game, he estimated he had more than 600 notifications.
“I’m pretty sure I didn’t text nobody back until the second day or night because there were so many messages,” he said. “I was trying to read them all. I’m pretty sure I got to the majority of them, but phone was going crazy.”
In a Cowboys season that has been filled with more disappointments than highlights going into Monday night’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals (8:15 p.m. ET, ESPN/ABC), Overshown’s play gives a glimpse into what could be a promising future for the 2023 third-round draft pick who missed his rookie season because of injury.
On a team full of Cowboys, he is now called “Cowboy.”
None of it has to do with the wristbands that cover the length of his left arm — an ode to a cousin who passed away — or the reflective sunglasses. Maybe some of it has to do with the Red Dirt hats he wears almost everywhere.
“This is who I am,” said Overshown, who grew up in Arp, Texas, about 120 miles east of Dallas. “It’s nothing to it, just who I am — a simple man.”
Overshown has arrived for games in full cowboy regalia, from long coat to cowboy hat to spurs adorning his boots. He even has a case for his cowboy hat. Defensive tackle Carlos Watkins came up with the nickname.
“He was like, ‘Man, you one of the most country [dudes] I done ever seen,'” Overshown said. “So out of nowhere he started calling me, ‘Cowboy.’ I like it.”
Said Watkins, “Just a very respectful young man and [has] the truck and everything. I feel like it suits him very well. Like a lot times you see him make a tackle, and he’ll do that right there, he got ’em one with the lasso [celebration]. I just feel like that kind of fits who he is. He likes horses and stuff, too. He’s into that stuff. So I was like, you know, that’s you, that fits.”
The touchdown against the Giants was like he was in a rodeo.
Before the first-and-10 snap, Overshown lined up as an off-ball linebacker. He moved to the end of the line of scrimmage, giving the Giants a tip that he would be rushing off the edge. His first clue that something was up came when quarterback Drew Lock did not change the protection.
At the snap, Overshown burst up the field right at Devin Singletary, plowing into the running back.
“The bulldozer in him — ‘I’m not going to make a move, I’m going to run through the dude’ — that’s probably the reason why he got the pick,” pass rusher Micah Parsons said. “If he was going to make somebody miss, that ball could have went anywhere. But I think the best part about him was, ‘I’m always going to run through somebody.'”
With Singletary off balance, Overshown’s eyes turned to Lock, who was trying to sidearm a screen pass to Singletary.
Instinctively, Overshown shot his right arm into the passing lane, deflecting the ball into the air. A step later, his eyes found the ball, and in a split second he was in the end zone with a 23-yard touchdown, giving the Cowboys a 13-7 lead in the second quarter that they would not lose.
GOBBLE, GOBBLE!@AGENT0__ ate that up!
📺: #NYGvsDAL on FOX
📲: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/LvklCbYJ1e pic.twitter.com/qhC9ybnh1k— Dallas Cowboys (@dallascowboys) November 28, 2024
“I mean, it’s a great play. Just all the way around,” coach Mike McCarthy said. “The anticipation, the instincts, the ability to get control of the football.”
Mike Zimmer was the Cowboys’ defensive coordinator in 2006 when DeMarcus Ware intercepted a Michael Vick pass and returned it for a touchdown in a win against the Atlanta Falcons. On a bootleg, Vick tried to knife a throw over an oncoming Ware, who caught the ball with ease for the first — and only — touchdown of his Hall of Fame career.
Overshown’s touchdown was in the same realm.
“I thought he collisioned the back really, really well, beat the back, and then was able to tip the ball and catch it,” Zimmer said. “So those are all three pretty good deals. But he’s a guy with a lot of speed, physicality, tackles well. I feel like he continues to get better and better.”
Overshown added a fumble recovery against the Giants, becoming the first Cowboys player with an interception return for a score and a fumble recovery in the same game since safety Roy Williams in 2002 against Washington.
Overshown is the third Cowboy to record at least five sacks, an interception, a fumble recovery and a forced fumble in the same season, joining Ware (2006) and Greg Ellis (1999).
“We’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg really,” McCarthy said. “I’m so impressed with him, and in his consistency, in his approach, and that’s just going to keep putting him in the position to progress. Frankly, we need to give him more opportunities because he obviously can make plays from the edge also.”
Overshown’s five sacks in his first 12 games are the second most by a Cowboy since 1982 (Parsons had 10 in 2021).
Overshown, linebacker Eric Kendricks and safety Donovan Wilson are the only Cowboys defenders to fill every key statistical category. Overshown’s 88 tackles are second best to Kendricks. His three tackles for loss are tied for the team lead. His 13 quarterback pressures lead the linebackers.
In each game since Week 2, he has played at least 70.6% of the snaps. In the past seven games, he played at least 92.6% of the snaps.
A year ago at this time, Overshown wasn’t even running. He was in the early stages of recovering from a torn ACL in his left knee, suffered in a preseason game against the Seattle Seahawks. He estimated that it wasn’t until early last December when he started wearing cleats again.
“When he first came back, we were trying to get him settled in and with one personnel group,” Zimmer said. “He’s proven that he’s one of the better players that we have. And so we talk about, ‘Well, if we did this, we’d have to have D-Mo off the field,’ so we don’t want to do that.
“We’re trying to use him as many ways as we can. He’s got a unique asset of strength and speed and power. And when he gets to the football, he’s got physicality, and usually he can get to the ball. Those are the kind of things that you don’t want to take a guy like that off the field if you can help it.”
Even though he did not play as a rookie, he did everything he could to be ready for 2024. He even fueled his competitiveness by swatting flies in his garage to keep up his reaction time.
“As much as I wasn’t on the field, I was still on the field at home, my helmet on, calling plays,” Overshown said.
A year after watching, he’s on the field, creating highlights.
“There are definitely days,” Overshown said. “You know, not every day is your best day, and you come to work and you get to see people doing what you love to do. And not be able to be a part of it, it’s definitely a feeling of like, ‘Man, this sucks.’
“You think about that for a couple of seconds but then you think about what tomorrow brings, it brightens your day.”