ARLINGTON, Texas — It's becoming easier to list the things DeMarvion Overshown can't do for the TV on a football field that it would be to try and name all of the things he can. He can cover, he can stop the run, he can be fired out of a cannon on blitzes to sack the opposing quarterback, and everything in-between.
On Thanksgiving, in their victory over the New York Giants with a hint of turkey in the air, Overshown brought the stuffing with one of the best plays you'll see in the sport this season.
He blitzed, blew up Devin Singletary, tipped the would-be pass from Drew Lock to Singletary, chased the ball down before it hit the ground, intercepted it and then ran it in for his first-ever pick-six.
"I was just playing football and it's like, man, I knew a play was coming and I've been told all week that play is coming," Overshown explained. "I didn't know when it was coming, but it was coming, and I was just playing football. I [saw] the ball, tipped it, and I was just praying the whole time that it stayed up. I was like, 'Man, please let my speed, for once, be fast enough to get to this ball.
"Everywhere else is cool, but let me get to this ball. So the emotions? I'm just overjoyed right now. It's a good win and I'm proud of our team."
His film study told him all he needed to know about the Giants' thought process this week.
"When the running back let me loose, I was like, 'There's some BS going on,'" he said. "And then the quarterback threw the ball and I was like, 'This is my play to make. I was able to kick in some nitrous and we were dancing in the end zone."
Simply put, Overshown is a force of nature.
"I told y'all from the beginning he was gonna be a dude," said multi-time All-Pro linebacker Micah Parsons. "From his rookie year, before the injury, I said, 'That will be an All-Pro, Pro Bowl type of player. I'm just happy that he's finally showing it. I saw it from the beginning."
And then, wearing a huge smile, Parsons gave Overshown another massive compliment.
"He reminds me of somebody," he said of the young linebacker, hinting at the obvious. "Now, he ain't No. 11 yet, but that's Agent 0, and I think he has his own creative identity, and that's what I like. He's not trying to be like me. He's his own special specimen. He's gonna be felt on every play.
"He's a wild cat out there on the field. I love playing next to him."
Contextually speaking, the things Overshown is doing in 2024 should be statistically impossible — seeing as he was sidelined his entire 2023 season as a rookie with a torn ACL, missed time and preseason games this year with a hip injury and, through the first 11 games of his career, is not only one of the best players on the Cowboys' defense.
He's one of the best players in the entire NFL.
"I'm very thankful," said Overshown. "Just before the game I was telling myself around this time last year, I was just waiting to show people my testimony of when I get back on the field. I'm going to show what God has truly put in me — to inspire and play like I do."
It's an East Texas kid who once dreamed of playing for the Cowboys now the adult version of himself showing up for them in big ways every week, the latest being on a national stage on Thanksgiving against a division rival.
"It [doesn't] get [any] bigger than this," Overshown said. "In 2007, my first year playing football, I was sitting at the Super Bowl around this time for little league, and throughout this whole week it was just like, 'Think about when you were seven. Think about what that little boy would want out of today, every time you step on that field.'
"It's just joyful."
Could Overshown find himself named a Pro Bowler, or even an All-Pro, in his first season on the field?
It's not out of the realm of possibility, assuming he continues to shred offenses in the manner in which he has, and he would join Micah Parsons and Leighton Vander Esch as the latest linebacker in Dallas to earn those honors as a first-year player (though the latter two were technically rookies).
At this point, the seven-year-old inside of him can only beam with pride.
