Strong bones and a broken mallet: DeMarvion Overshown details surgery and his expectations – Jon Machota, The Athletic
DeMarvion Overshown does not have a timeline for recovery, but he is determined to get back to playing football as soon as he can.
The Dallas Cowboys linebacker tore the ACL, MCL and PCL in his right knee during Dallas’ Week 14 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. The procedure that followed last month included work on both knees. Overshown said the surgeon took the patellar tendon out of his left knee and used it to fix his right ACL. They discussed pulling from his hamstring and quad but that could lead to losing some speed and power in his legs. His left knee looked healthy on the scan, so they went in that direction.
“I’m out of patellar tendons,” Overshown said. “This is it. You have two good ones. Two good enough to reconstruct your other ACL.”
There were screws already in his surgically-repaired left knee that needed to come out to complete the procedure. The surgeon needed to use a mallet. It broke.
“He said my bone was so strong and so dense that he broke his mallet,” Overshown said. “I got some strong, healthy bones. For people that say drink milk to get strong, healthy bones, that is not true. I do not like milk at all. But according to the doc, I have some of the most dense bones he’s ever seen.”…
…“They haven’t really tried to talk timelines with me, just because they know how I am,” he said. “Don’t tell me that I’m going to miss the whole season. Don’t tell me I can play at the beginning of the season. Being me, I’m going to try to get there right now. I think it’s kind of like last year, we’re going to get to the nine-month period, see how I am, start working me in and wait until I’m fully comfortable and healthy.
Carl Lawson is ‘100 percent’ open to re-signing with Cowboys – Patrik Walker, DallasCowboys.com
The Cowboys may want to keep Carl Lawson in Dallas next season, and Lawson is open to the idea.
His season includes one of the biggest highlights of the season for Cowboys, when he bull rushed two-time All-Pro and four-time Pro Bowl tackle Tristan Wirfs into the Earth’s crust.
“I know I have scary potential as a football player. It’s just [about] putting it on consistently, and being able to put that out there,” Lawson said. “I’m really excited for the work I’m going to put in this offseason. … This is the year where I feel I’m going to have my biggest jump going into the next season. … I’m more confident going into the following season more than any other season [prior].
“I know what to do. I know what I need to work on and I know how to do those things. It’s going to happen inevitably. I just don’t know the ‘when’ and the ‘where’.”
Considering he’s formed “bonds that are gonna last a lifetime” in Dallas, those having been formed in the crucible of adversity, might Lawson’s “where” be in a Cowboys uniform in 2025?
He’s certainly open to the idea.
“Oh, one hundred percent,” he said. “One hundred percent.”
Here We Goooo: Is 2025 the year of the bounce back? – Tommy Yarrish, DallasCowboys.com
There are so many things that went wrong in 2024, will the Cowboys be able to bounce back in 2025?
I don’t have to tell you that injuries were a storyline throughout the course of the year for Dallas in 2024. Will 2025 be the year of the bounce back for the Cowboys key players?
If it is, it will likely all start with Dak Prescott. Through his first nine games before a season ending hamstring injury, Prescott wavered from his 2023 MVP runner-up performance, throwing eight interceptions to go with 11 touchdowns, compared to the nine picks he had thrown the entire year before. When Prescott is clicking, so is the rest of this offense.
And speaking of the rest of the offense, Prescott’s reinsertion could open the doors for their respective bounce back seasons too. Take Jake Ferguson for example, who had just 59 receptions for 494 yards and no touchdowns in 2024, with drop struggles mixed in. Or maybe Jonathan Mingo, who caught just five passes for 46 yards after being dealt for a fourth-round pick at the trade deadline.
The offensive line will look for a bounce back season too, especially at left tackle with Tyler Guyton, who worked through penalty, injury, and protection injuries all season long. The Cowboys are confident he can develop into a good player for them, but he needs the time on the practice field to get the reps necessary to spark that development.
On the defensive side of the ball, can Sam Williams return from his season-ending injury and produce at a similar level from his first two seasons? He tallied 8.5 sacks and would be a welcome addition back to the defensive line opposite Micah Parsons.
In the secondary, can Caelen Carson put his rookie struggles behind him and get back to playing aggressive, tight coverage? Teams picked on him at times this season, but Carson has the frame and tools necessary to help this secondary when playing his best.
There’s a lot of “if’s” for each of these players, and all of them having a bounce back season is unlikely. That said, not all of them need to have a drastically different season for the Cowboys to get back in the playoff picture.
Why Troy Aikman thinks Mike McCarthy will be back with Cowboys in 2025 – Joey Hayden, Dallas Morning News
Troy Aikman gave his opinion on who he predicts will be the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys next season: Mike McCarthy.
“I don’t know how you sell this one way or another,” Aikman said Thursday during his weekly interview with Sportsradio 96.7 FM/1310 The Ticket (KTCK-AM). “I’ve thought for a while that he would be back. I guess the fact that that hasn’t been announced publicly that he is coming back, then it must come down to a contract, if they can reach an agreement on a contract, what that might look like.
“I think this week when Chicago reached out and requested the opportunity to interview Mike, and then that was denied, it would seem that he’ll be back. I can’t imagine him not being back, and then he missed out on an opportunity to interview for a job that he might have wanted, you know? I mean, it just doesn’t — none of this makes sense to me.”
Hot coaching candidates around the league like Detroit coordinators Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn, as well as former Titans head coach Mike Vrabel and many others either have begun conducting interviews with other franchises or have them scheduled to take place in the near future.
Dallas holds an exclusive negotiating window with McCarthy until Tuesday.
“If [McCarthy]’s not back, you know, what then? How much thought has been going into who might be the next coach, and are you missing out on opportunities to interview those people? So, it never gets dull,” Aikman said. “But my gut says that Mike will be back.”