The Dallas Cowboys have put DeMarvion Overshown in charge of the defense’s green-dot duties for the 2026 NFL season, giving him the main communication job as the regular season approaches. Brian Schottenheimer said Friday that Overshown earned the role and will carry it into the season.
The timing matters because the Cowboys are not handing that responsibility to a team coming off a strong defensive year. They finished No. 30 in total defense and had the worst pass defense in the NFL last season, so the person wearing the green dot is being asked to help steady a unit that badly needed a reset.
Overshown has already been doing the job on the field. He wore the green dot throughout training camp and the preseason, and Schottenheimer said on 105.3 The Fan ahead of Thursday’s practice that he had earned the assignment. That gives the Cowboys a clear answer on who starts the year with the headset duty, even after an offseason in which they overhauled the defense and added Jalen Thompson and P.J. Locke, traded for Rashan Gary and drafted Caleb Downs in the first round.
Schottenheimer also made one part of the plan clear: this will not be a one-man arrangement in every look. He said multiple players will handle the green-dot job in different packages, with Overshown doing a lot of the heavy lifting. That matters because the Cowboys are leaning on him for leadership even though his career has been marked by injury setbacks, a risk they are accepting as they ask him to help organize a defense that needs better communication from the start.
For now, the answer is simple. Overshown is the Cowboys’ primary defensive voice heading into 2026, and the only open question is how much of that responsibility he keeps once the regular season starts and the package rotation begins to matter.
