The Cowboys dropped their preseason opener to the Jaguars on Saturday night by a score of 28-23.
Wins and losses don’t matter as much as individual evaluations in the preseason, so this was still a successful night on several fronts.
The preseason is the third step in a four-step process of player evaluation. When the team arrives in camp, they spend the first few days practicing without pads. You want to see guys show up during this period, but it’s only the first step. The second step is carrying over those positives into padded practices. This is a time when a lot of players who were stars for the first few days of camp begin to fall off.
The third step occurred on Saturday when you hope to see players maintain their success with live preseason reps. With the regular season comes the final step, when the guys who were ready the first day of camp, who also carried it over to pads, and then showed it during the preseason, get the chance to show you if they really are who you saw in August.
So with that in mind, let’s take a look at the guys who checked the box for step three in the preseason opener.
DEMARVION OVERSHOWN
The Cowboys’ third-round pick in April’s draft, LB DeMarvion Overshown was incredibly impressive against the Jaguars, making perhaps the most eye-opening play of the game, when he stood up Jaguars running back Tank Bigsby in the hole on a 3rd-and-1 carry in the first quarter. He finished the day with six tackles and showed tremendous instincts.
Overshown played all over the defense while at the University of Texas, but he’s relatively new to the linebacker position as a full-time role. You wouldn’t be able to tell his inexperience at the position based on his performance in Oxnard, and it was encouraging to see him carry that over to live game reps.
Overshown, who has been lauded both publicly and privately by the team for his football character, even delivered the speech to the pre-game team huddle. That’s not something you typically see from a rookie, even in a preseason game.
JALEN TOLBERT
From this year’s third round pick to last year’s, WR Jalen Tolbert was by far the most disappointing rookie on the team last season.
He’s said all the right things during the offseason, and he showed up to camp ready to play, but there was a question as to whether he’d be able to keep it up once the pads came on. Padded practice was the first sign of trouble for Tolbert last season.
Tolbert managed to stand out when the pads came on this year, which brought greater excitement for his preseason debut in 2023. Tolbert continued to show the “my ball” mentality against the Jags he displayed during Oxnard practices. He had two receptions for 29 yards and a touchdown in the game, and he had a 30-yard catch wiped away by a questionable offensive pass interference call. Regardless of the flag, Tolbert showed toughness, a superb catch radius, and sideline awareness on the play that will show up as an encouraging sign on his tape.
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DEUCE VAUGHN
The unquestioned star of the preseason opener was rookie RB Deuce Vaughn, who the Cowboys drafted out of Kansas State in the sixth round.
Vaughn picked up 50 yards rushing on eight carries, showing off some of his well-known elusiveness in the open field, as well as his plus receiving traits. There was never going to be a question about Vaughn’s agility and playmaking ability translating to the NFL.
Vaughn’s 5’5 frame holding up among the giants of the NFL is really the only thing that could stop him, but through several training camp practices and one preseason game, it hasn’t yet proved to be a deterrent.