Dallas City News

The next couple of days will be intense across the NFL as every team in the league will trim their rosters down to the mandated 53 by 4pm ET on Tuesday, August 27th.

It is always worth mentioning that the initial 53 will, in all likelihood, be changed before the team boards a plane to visit the Cleveland Browns in Week 1. Roster gymnastics are a real thing, although they are slightly less necessary this season given how each team is allowed to place two players on injured reserve at this time and bring them back within the season (this was not the case previously). Chuma Edoga and DaRon Bland are the likely names that Dallas will utilize this option with.

But there will obviously be work done all across the roster and while we think that we know who is going to make it, there is always a surprise or two.

Oftentimes this is the result of health, and apparently there is some concern at linebacker.

There is reportedly ‘a little worry’ over the health of Damone Clark and DeMarvion Overshown

Late Saturday night after the dust from the preseason finale had long settled, ESPN’s Todd Archer released his own 53-man roster prediction. There will be a lot of predictions in the next ~48 hours or so.

But Archer is among the most plugged-in insiders on the beat so what he says is worth paying attention to. A lot of his prediction was chalk as far as our expectations of the group are concerned, but he had this note in the linebacker section.

LINEBACKERS (6): Eric Kendricks, Damone Clark, DeMarvion Overshown, Marist Liufau, Willie Harvey, Buddy Johnson

There’s a little worry over the health of Clark (knee), Overshown (hip and coming off a torn ACL) that at least early it makes sense to keep an extra linebacker, like Johnson. Harvey, a UFL addition, has been consistent since the start of camp. Nick Vigil was in consideration here because of familiarity with scheme and special teams play, but he could get back to the practice squad and be called up early.

This could just be the Cowboys hedging their bets a little bit as it seems that Mike Zimmer cares a lot more about true linebacker depth than his predecessor, but it is a little bit concerning to see nonetheless. A world without Clark and Overshown would be challenged severely and may call for Micah Parsons to play a bit more off the ball.

Willie Harvey has had a great camp and preseason to this point, and Buddy Johnson really flashed in the finale against the Chargers. If the Cowboys are going to go long (relatively speaking) they are definitely the two names who make the most sense to do it with. Obviously keeping tabs on other players cut across the league is worth doing as well.