Demarvion
Overshown.
Demarvion
Overshown.
Texas· 6'3"· 229 lb· 4.56s 40
"A safety who grew into a linebacker's body without losing a safety's range — the profile every modern defense wants, attached to a frame that still had to prove it could survive between the tackles."Pre-draft read
A converted safety playing off-ball linebacker, and it shows on every snap. Overshown lives at Will in a 4-3 front, reads through the guard from depth and triggers downhill the instant the run declares. The closing speed is the trait: he covers ground sideline to sideline, arrives at the ball carrier's shoulder rather than his back, and turns cutbacks into losses.
In coverage he carries tight ends up the seam and reroutes crossers with real length, which is where the safety background pays. The give-back is contact: he takes on blocks with his frame rather than his hands and can get stacked at the point when a guard reaches the second level. The signature is speed to the football — few linebackers in the class chased plays as far.
One-gap 4-3 or nickel-base defense that keeps him clean and lets him run. He needs a front that occupies blockers so he can play forward, and coverage responsibilities that use his range instead of parking him in the box.
Year 1: sub-package coverage linebacker on 350-450 snaps, matched on tight ends and backs and used as a timed blitzer. Ceiling: a full-time three-down Will who carries a defense's second level in space and produces takeaways.
A two-gap 3-4 that asks its inside linebackers to take on pulling guards head-up and hold the point in short yardage — the mass and hand usage are not there to survive that job snap after snap.
Dallas deployed him exactly as projected in 2024: off-ball in nickel, blitzing on timing, matched in coverage rather than stacked in the box.
Texas Missile | DeMarvion Overshown Ultimate Texas Highlights
Career Longhorns reel: downhill trigger, sideline-to-sideline range and coverage reps against Big 12 tight ends.
DeMarvion Overshown | 2024 Highlights
His 13-game 2024 season with Dallas, including the blitz timing and the interception returned for a touchdown.
DeMarvion Overshown Preseason Highlights vs Jaguars
Early NFL cutup showing how Dallas deployed him off-ball in nickel before the rookie-year knee injury.
Overshown is a movement linebacker built for a defense that asks him to run. He is a Will in a one-gap front, best playing forward and unblocked, and the evaluation rests on whether his range and coverage utility outweigh a frame still filling out at 229 pounds. The team drafting him is buying speed and cover ability at a position that increasingly needs both, not a downhill thumper.
The development curve is the context. He arrived in Austin as a safety, played nine games as a freshman with one tackle, and did not move to linebacker until 2020 — meaning he had three seasons of real reps at the position, not five. Those three seasons went in a straight line: 60 tackles in 2020, 74 in 2021, then 96 tackles with 10.0 tackles for loss and 4.0 sacks as a senior in 2022. Across five years he finished with 249 tackles, 29.5 tackles for loss, 9.0 sacks and three interceptions, with the ball production spread across every linebacker season.
The flags were mass and hands. At 229 pounds with 15 bench reps at the combine, he struggled to disengage once blockers got into him, and evaluators questioned how he would hold up on early downs. His 4.56 forty and 124-inch broad jump kept him firmly on Day 2 boards as a coverage-first linebacker, and Dallas took him 90th overall to play in space.
- 01
Range
Covers ground sideline to sideline as well as any linebacker in the class and consistently arrives in front of the ball carrier rather than trailing the play from behind.
- 02
Trigger
Reads through the guard from depth and drives downhill the moment the run declares, which is where his tackles for loss come from.
- 03
Coverage
Safety background shows in his ability to carry tight ends up the seam, reroute crossers and play with his eyes on the quarterback in zone.
- 04
Ball production
Three interceptions and 17 passes defended across three seasons at linebacker, a rate of takeaway involvement rare for the position.
- 05
Blitz timing
Reads protection slides and picks his lane late, turning delayed pressure into 4.0 sacks as a senior without needing a rush move.
- 01
Play strength
At 229 pounds with 15 bench reps he can be moved and stacked when a guard climbs clean to the second level, and he struggles to disengage once latched.
- 02
Block deconstruction
Takes on contact with his frame instead of his hands and does not consistently keep himself free in the box on early downs.
- 03
Position experience
Only three seasons of real linebacker reps after arriving at Texas as a safety, and the processing still lagged the athleticism at times.
- 04
Age
Turns 23 in his rookie year after five college seasons, which limits how much projection a team can build into the developmental gap.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.56sp50
- Vertical
- —in
- Broad jump
- 124inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- 15repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Texas | 9 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | Texas | 8 | 18 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| 2020 | Texas | 10 | 60 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 2 |
| 2021 | Texas | 11 | 74 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 2022 | Texas | 12 | 96 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| Career | — | 50 | 249 | 9 | 3 | 17 | 3 |
Verified against cfbstats and Sports-Reference; the season totals sum exactly to the published career line (249 tackles, 29.5 TFL, 9.0 sacks, 3 INT, 17 PD, 3 FF). Two conflicts were resolved toward the reconciling source: cfbstats lists 8.0 TFL in 2020 against Sports-Reference's 7.0, and only the 7.0 figure makes the career total balance. Fumbles recovered are not published by cfbstats for any season and Sports-Reference's own season rows (one, in 2020) do not add up to its career figure of three, so unverified seasons and the career total are left unrecorded rather than zeroed. He played safety in 2018-2019 and moved to linebacker in 2020.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
The realistic outcome: a high-motor starting Will whose speed and blitz timing produce splash plays, with early-down reps managed around his lack of bulk.
The upside outcome: a long, rangy converted athlete who takes a few years to settle at linebacker and then plays at an All-Pro level as a three-down cover man.
The floor: elite testing that never converts because the processing and play strength stall out, leaving a rotational sub-package defender.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Overshown suffered a torn ACL in the preseason of his rookie year and missed the entire 2023 season. He has not yet played in an NFL regular season game.
The career has been shaped almost entirely by his knees. He tore an ACL in the first quarter of Dallas' third preseason game in August 2023 and missed his entire rookie season. When he finally played in 2024 he was immediately the player the traits promised: 13 games, 90 tackles, 5.0 sacks, five tackles for loss, four passes defended, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and a 23-yard interception return for a touchdown. Then, on December 9, 2024, against Cincinnati, he tore the ACL, MCL and PCL in his right knee — a three-ligament injury that ended the season and threatened the next. Dallas opened him on the physically unable to perform list in July 2025 and did not activate him until Week 11, eleven months after surgery. He finished 2025 with six games, 28 tackles and no sacks, working back into a rotation rather than reclaiming the every-down role.
In hindsight, the pick itself was right and the luck was not. Ninety was fair value for that kind of range, and the 2024 tape settled whether the coverage traits would carry to Sundays — for thirteen games he was one of the more disruptive off-ball linebackers in the league. What the evaluation could not price was durability. Entering 2026 he is in the final year of his rookie contract with 19 career games played, and the only real question left is whether a knee that has been rebuilt twice can hold up for a full season.
Data note: Imported from Wikipedia 2023 NFL draft player selections table.