FRISCO, Texas - Football season is getting closer and closer.
The Cowboys are set to depart for training camp in less a month. That's when we'll get the first up-close look at Brian Schottenheimer's first season with this revised roster and coaching staff. When we get to Oxnard, that's when we'll start to get some real answers about this 2025 Cowboys team.
But what are the questions? We've compiled our annual list of pressing questions that need answers heading into the regular season. The staff writers, consisting of Patrik Walker, Tommy Yarrish, Nick Eatman, Mickey Spagnola, Kyle Youmans and Kurt Daniels, weigh in on some of the pressing issues.
Today's question centers on a pair of players who are battling injuries and what to expect from Trevon Diggs and DeMarvion Overshown this year.
7) Expectations for Diggs & Overshown this season?
Mickey: These are more the hopes than "expectations" for two players coming off complex knee surgeries. The hope for Trevon Diggs, who has chosen to do his rehabilitation apart from the Cowboys trainers is being ready to start the season on time. There is no guarantee of that. Now the Cowboys training staff has been monitoring his rehab progress from afar, and did work with him during the three-day minicamp, but chances are Diggs will begin training camp on PUP just so they can continue working with him to better monitor his progress firsthand. The Cowboys must cover themselves for any potential early season absence. As for DeMarvion Overshown, who is rehabbing with the team training staff, and while there is optimism over his progress, the realistic hope is that the third-year linebacker can resume playing around Thanksgiving, though no timeline is set. Any contribution from Overshown will be considered a bonus.
Patrik: It's not the same for both, I'll tell you that much. That's because of the timing and type of injury, allowing for an earlier potential timeline for return for Diggs. There's at least a slight possibility Diggs could be ready at the start of training camp but, more realistically, before camp breaks in mid-August to return to Dallas; and that could keep him from starting the season on the PUP (physically unable to perform) list and missing any games from the outset. Overshown is moving around well nowadays but has more hurdles to overcome than does Diggs, so it seems a foregone conclusion the superstar in the making will miss games to start the 2025 campaign — though he fully expects to be on the field several games before the regular season concludes. As for their level of play when they eventually return? That's impossible to calculate, to be honest. One on hand, you should allow some grace for any player returning from a season-ending knee injury but, on the other hand, we've now seen Overshown fly out of the gate swiftly when he returned in 2024 from a torn ACL in his other knee. Diggs is more difficult to predict, because it'll depend on how confident he feels with his knee this time around, but given the fact the Cowboys are currently in dire straits as far as figuring out the CB position, there is a ton of pressure on the record-setting All-Pro to get back to that version of himself ... and pronto.
Nick: I don't expect either of them to play Week 1. But I have a feeling both will play at some point this season. I know that's pretty vague and a wide range of an answer but that's how much uncertainty there is for both players.
For Overshown, I really can't count him out - ever. I think he'd tell you right now he will be ready for the season and maybe even training camp. But the training staff has to be smart about it and they will. That's one of the best groups in all of sports and they know how to get players back in time, not only as quickly as possible, but also so they will stay on the field and not continue to go back and forth on the injured list. My gut says Overshown starts the year on PUP and will be ready by October.
For Diggs, it's a little different because the nature of his injury is also rather unique. He's also not been with the training staff on a regular basis, but that doesn't mean he's not rehabbing. It's just been harder to keep tabs on him. But something tells me he will also go on PUP and probably be ready by the middle of the season as well. Either way, the Cowboys have to figure out other ways to back them up at those positions.
Kurt: Unfortunately, I don't think we should expect too much from either player in 2025. While both are unbelievably talented and have shown they can be true game changers, each is also coming off a second surgery on the same knee in as many years. We've seen how players in the past have needed time to ramp up after one such injury, oftentimes needing at least a season to return to form. But even though Diggs and Overshown were able to come back strong in 2024 following their 2023 surgeries, can they do so again a second consecutive time? That seems a lot to ask. I hope I'm wrong, but if the Cowboys are going into this 2025 campaign counting on Diggs or Overshown to be impact players, the defense could be in trouble. Instead, the better game plan may be that any contributions the two make in the upcoming season are seen as just a bonus.
