{"id":292289,"date":"2025-11-15T02:00:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T02:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/292289\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T02:00:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T02:00:14","slug":"cowboys-set-to-get-key-reinforcements-on-defense-for-raiders-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/292289\/","title":{"rendered":"Cowboys set to get key reinforcements on defense for Raiders clash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763172012_501_archer_todd.png&#038;h=80&#038;w=80&#038;scale=crop.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"40\" height=\"40\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Todd ArcherNov 14, 2025, 06:06 PM ET<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"icon-font-after icon-close-solid-after\" href=\"#\">Close<\/a>Todd Archer is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the Dallas Cowboys. Archer has covered the NFL since 1997 and Dallas since 2003. He joined ESPN in 2010.<\/p>\n<p>FRISCO, Texas &#8212; At different points this season, <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"b0fc8fb7-9dbe-e574-9008-6f0ee7c6b234\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/team\/_\/name\/dal\/dallas-cowboys\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dallas Cowboys<\/a> owner and general manager Jerry Jones has talked about how help is on the way for a beleaguered defense.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday against the <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"b18540eb-6f2b-534c-e7f9-9bd930518da9\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/team\/_\/name\/lv\/las-vegas-raiders\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Las Vegas Raiders<\/a>, that help will arrive with the returns from serious knee injuries of linebacker <a data-player-guid=\"64944dd8-160f-0726-2b9d-4e82e22db36e\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/4362088\/demarvion-overshown\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">DeMarvion Overshown<\/a> and rookie cornerback <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/5095865\/shavon-revel-jr\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Shavon Revel Jr.<\/a>, as well as the trade-deadline pickups of All-Pro defensive tackle <a data-player-guid=\"b299da3f-168e-d279-dc79-8d7b0d926def\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/4040982\/quinnen-williams\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Quinnen Williams<\/a> and linebacker <a data-player-guid=\"e35c879c-ec2e-e2ca-8acc-df3c15903013\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/3918330\/logan-wilson\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Logan Wilson<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Overshown and Revel have practiced for the past three weeks, and Williams and Wilson have gone through two practices this week after being acquired before the Cowboys&#8217; bye week.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to getting ready to play, they have had to deal with the tragic loss of teammate Marshawn Kneeland.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve got to keep Marshawn&#8217;s legacy alive and that was smiling every day, enjoying the grit and hard work that comes with this,&#8221; Overshown said. &#8220;That&#8217;s playing with a passion when we get out there with our brothers and, more importantly, it&#8217;s us doing it the Marshawn Kneeland way.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Editor&#8217;s Picks<a name=\"&amp;lpos=story:editorspicks:inline:1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/46929408\/2025-offseason-change-scenery-five-players-working-new-teams\" class=\"img-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/r1574139_1296x1296_1-1.jpg&#038;w=130&#038;h=130&#038;scale=crop&#038;location=center.jpeg\" width=\"65\" height=\"65\"\/><\/a><a name=\"&amp;lpos=story:editorspicks:inline:2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/46848422\/sources-jets-trade-quinnen-williams-cowboys\" class=\"img-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/r1570775_1296x1296_1-1.jpg&#038;w=130&#038;h=130&#038;scale=crop&#038;location=center.jpeg\" width=\"65\" height=\"65\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>1 Related<\/p>\n<p>The Cowboys entered Week 11 with the 31st-ranked defense in terms of yards (397.4) and points (30.8) per game. Teams have converted a league-best 52.6% of the time on third down against Dallas.<\/p>\n<p>Any bit of help will do.<\/p>\n<p>Overshown suffered torn anterior cruciate, medial collateral and posterior cruciate ligaments in his right knee against the <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"75b8623b-8926-b411-0476-3d3602b78523\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/team\/_\/name\/cin\/cincinnati-bengals\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> on Dec. 9, 2024. At the time, there was no guarantee Overshown would be able to play at all in 2025. The only sign of his injury will be a brace on his knee.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I just want him to play free,&#8221; coach Brian Schottenheimer said. &#8220;I really do. I don&#8217;t want to put too much pressure on D-Mo. He hasn&#8217;t played in a long time, but he hasn&#8217;t forgotten how to play either. But I will know this: He will be running to the football. He will be making plays.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>At the time of his injury, Overshown was the Cowboys&#8217; second-leading tackler and he had 5.5 sacks. The Cowboys have discussed a pitch count with him.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s what you want to do coming off of any injury, especially for a guy that ain&#8217;t played in 300-something days,&#8221; Overshown said. &#8220;But we already know, man, it&#8217;s winning football time. So when the time comes, when the situation comes, if I&#8217;m at that play count or that limit, we already done made the conversations where look, (if) it&#8217;s a play that needs to be made, I got to be on the field.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Williams, acquired from the <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"732d3caf-b350-1e34-48c6-b7cebb4a0d88\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/team\/_\/name\/nyj\/new-york-jets\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New York Jets<\/a> for a 2026 second-round pick, a 2027 first-round pick and defensive tackle <a data-player-guid=\"56f76012-a386-7ba9-8e58-8b306a37b18d\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/4426347\/mazi-smith\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mazi Smith<\/a>, has not played since Oct. 26, with the Jets having their bye week heading into the trade deadline.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, Williams said he put himself through a &#8220;mock game,&#8221; with a number of sprints to make sure he was OK physically heading into the Raiders game. He said this is the longest he has gone without playing while healthy.<\/p>\n<p>He is expected to start alongside <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/3122752\/kenny-clark\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kenny Clark<\/a> on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I haven&#8217;t played a game in a long, little minute so I&#8217;m super excited,&#8221; Williams said. &#8220;Not only play a football game but to play for this organization, to play for this team, to play for the guys in our defensive line room. &#8230; It&#8217;s been on my like front-most importance. They took a chance on me and traded for me. Doing the things that they feel like I can come and do and contribute and help this organization go in the right direction, that&#8217;s all I plan to do.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Wilson said his role remains up in the air, but he has spent extra hours with linebackers coach Dave Borgonzi.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Just kind of controlling the controllables, what I can trying to learn this system,&#8221; Wilson said. &#8220;Each and every day there&#8217;s been new things and it&#8217;s not going to happen overnight. It&#8217;s going to take a little bit, but to me I&#8217;m doing my best to learn it the best I can.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Revel was the Cowboys&#8217; third-round pick, No. 76 overall, but the organization knew he would need time to recover from a torn ACL he suffered last September at East Carolina. Like Overshown, he is wearing a brace, but he feels like he is ready for whatever action he is given, likely in a reserve role.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s kind of nerve-wracking, but once I touch that field, I know what I can do,&#8221; Revel said. &#8220;And I feel like they know what I can do. But I know my body and I know I can play the game and be confident.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Todd ArcherNov 14, 2025, 06:06 PM ET CloseTodd Archer is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-292289","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-nfl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}