Dallas Cowboys Linebacker Room Gets MASSIVE Overhaul | Shemar James Next Man Up?

Dallas Cowboys Linebacker Room Gets MASSIVE Overhaul | Shemar James Next Man Up?

The Dallas Cowboys have a big hole at linebacker. Can Chamar James fill it? We’ll break it down next. You are Locked On Cowboys, your daily Dallas Cowboys podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Welcome back to the Lockd On Cowboys podcast, part of the Locked On Network, your team every day. We’d like to thank you for making us your first listen of the day. Today’s episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code lockdown NFL at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. Welcome back. I am your host Marcus Mosher. You can follow me on Twitter, marcus_mmoer. Joining me today as always is Landon Mcool. You can follow him on Twitter, mcoolbcb. And on today’s show, we’re going to take a look at the Cowboys linebacker situation. We’re going to look at some of the veterans who are already on the roster and have been on the roster over the last couple years. Some of the new additions, including Jack Samborn and Kenneth Murray. But Lena, let’s start with the Cowboys fifth round pick, Shamar James, in the 2025 NFL draft. They actually traded up for James in the fifth round. It’s their only their third trade up since 2016. So clearly somebody liked him. What did you see from his take? Yeah. Yeah. It’s it’s kind of interesting too because not not necessarily a guy that I would peg for being kind of an Ebra flu linebacker, you know, a little bit undersized and the testing wasn’t quite what you expect. Uh, but to be fair, it does feel like when you watch him on tape, the the testing doesn’t quite jive necessarily with the athlete that you see on film. I just saw a guy that was, you know, just an excellent downhill linebacker, right? Just really aggressive and physical when engaging blockers. Uh, he has a lot of flexibility to kind of contort his body. So, you know, when he sees sees it correctly, he’s able to pull the trigger and come downhill to make the tackle. or if he’s a blitzer and he’s being sent through the A or B gap uh to come downhill to attack a quarterback, uh he does a really good job of of getting downhill quickly, of being able to navigate around blocks. You see it a lot. He almost kind of works around the edge of like guards and centers like a like a pass rusher, right? You would see going around the offensive tackle just being able to kind of dip and dive underneath guys to get around them to get in the back field and make tackles. Um, you know, it’s it’s really interesting that they went out and got I don’t want to call him a blitzing linebacker because he doesn’t, but I kind of think that’s what he does the best, right? Yeah, absolutely. And in Matt Eberfloose defense, linebackers just don’t blitz all that often. We were talking about this last week where like Matt Eberloose has like one of the lowest blitz rates in the NFL. And when he does blitz, it’s generally a slot corner that’s coming off the edge. So, the fact that they they targeted James is fascinating to me. Yeah. You know, I I I do think, you know, there’s something to the the idea. I mean, obviously, we’ll talk about a little bit later. I mean, the the special teams aspect is clearly the thing that’s, you know, the the cherry on top with him a little bit. I mean, he was a he has a lot a wide variety and a breadth and depth of special teams experience. I think he played all four major special teams units at one point and was very good at them. So, that’s clearly part of this. But at the same time, you’re not wrong, right? Like he is kind of an undersized slightly downhill linebacker. I mean, we’ve talked about these types before in a lot of different forums, right? So, we you’ve seen these guys before. And the other thing that I was going to bring on is that I don’t, you know, I’ve seen I’ve read all a lot of reports of this kid. Some people have described it as vision issues. Some people have described it as instinct issues. To me, I think his vision and his instincts are okay. I think the issue is that his initial movement is fine. Like he sees things, he reads his initial queue fine. He starts to come downhill a little bit. I think that he really really struggles to track his targets behind the line of scrimmage if they get if his vision gets obstructed. That’s where I feel like he really does struggle. Like once he loses sight of his of his target, he really has a hard time kind of finding it again. So that’s why I think you see him really struggle with misdirection, right? You see him uh often in in kind of counter stuff or uh reverses. He’s he’s not seeing it until a lot later than some of the other players on on his level on the defense. And and I I think that’s why I think he he you know he’s a really strong athlete and he’s physical for a guy his size, but I think the reason he fell is because he didn’t test necessarily very well. He tested probably in the 50 percentile as a 40 dash guy. didn’t have an explosive jump necessarily. Had had a pretty good broad, but but nothing, you know, to write home about. And then on top of that, he’s not necessarily instinctual. So, you almost kind of want to compare him to Kenneth Murray, except without all the great testing. So, I I I I I think that they think that they can get more out of this guy, right? And I think part of what we need to remember this whole episode when we’re talking about a lot of these guys is that Eberloose is a excellent, excellent linebacker coach himself. and that a lot of these guys you’re hoping are going to get coached up a little bit by Ibraflu. So maybe that’s what’s going on here. But honestly, I think to me this guy is a special teamer this year who, you know, if he gets on the field, it’s because some people got injured. I think he’s not going to get you killed, but he’s not going to be a plus player this year. So we project him as more of a weak side linebacker, I would assume, in the NFL, right? I mean, just because he’s so small, he’s really he’s like he’s 220, I think it is. Yeah. So for sure, and he’s like 6’2. I I think, you know, when you look at the other guys on this roster, we’ll talk about some of the fits later because I do think it’s it’s interesting. But yeah, I have to think he’s a will because he’s he’s you know, he’s got to be one of the smaller linebackers in the room at this point. I I would think so. Now, we should mention, and you kind of touched on this, Matt Everfloose has a ridiculous track record of drafting day three linebackers and turning them into good NFL players. whether it was Anthony Hitchens all the way back in was it the 2016 draft, 2015 draft a while ago. Uh I Shaq Leonard was a second round pick that he turned into an allp pro linebacker. But the guy that he reminds me of uh Shamar James is EJ Speed who the Colts drafted in the fifth round in 2019. And Speed was one of these guys was a 46 athlete. A lot of people thought he should have been an undrafted free agent. He was a former wide receiver and then I flu turns him into like a 150 tackle guy every single year. Now that I don’t think he’s going to be like a dominant NFL linebacker, but when you when you’ve got that high of character, he was team captain at Florida. He played three years there. We should also mention like generally the linebackers that you get on the third day of the draft, they’re either they’re either like overageed, you know, 24, 25 years old or they’re super young and underdeveloped and just haven’t played. This is one of the cases where James is young. He declared as a junior, he’s played a bunch of snaps in the SEC. So, I won’t be surprised if he comes in and he’s better than maybe anybody anticipates. Yeah. I mean, here’s the thing. He he definitely plays more athletic than his testing. So, right away you look at that and you’re like, “This guy’s probably going to get uh underdrafted, right? He’s going to fall a little bit unnecessarily and and and you know, the things you are concerned you’re concerning yourself about uh about his play, about his game. Uh you feel like at the very least Eberloose more than maybe some other coaches in the NFL could really kind of help turn around a little bit. So, yeah, I do think you could potentially get a little bit more value out of this kid on this team than maybe some other teams if he had gotten drafted. I will say I got to watch him at the Senior Bowl uh during the practices and I thought he was pretty good in the practices. He had a couple reps in coverage where he struggled, but in general I thought he got better every single day there. So, you are talking about an extremely young linebacker who was going into a very linebacker friendly scheme, I think is a nice way to put it. Yeah, I I’m excited. The fact that the Cowboys traded up in the fifth round means that I’ve got to assume this is somebody that even targeted and it’s like, hey, I can make this guy a quality player for us because the Cowboys just generally do not trade up in the draft at all. Yeah. I mean, again, there’s a very very good chance that they got a real steal here or they felt like they were getting a real steal and that’s why they felt like they needed to pounce on it. Yeah. All right, let’s talk about the new linebackers the Cowboys have because this room has been completely transformed over the off seasonason. Let’s talk about Kenneth Murray and Jack Sambour next. This episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Have you ever checked your bank account and wondered where did all my money go between dining out, online shopping, and entertainment? It’s easy to lose track, but that’s where Monarch Money comes in. your personal CFO, giving you full visibility and control over your finances. Monarch Money isn’t just a budgeting app. It’s a complete financial command center. You can track all of your accounts, your investments, and your spending in one place so you can stop managing your money and start building your wealth. My wife and I have been using Monarch Money for several months now. And it’s amazing how much money that we were just throwing away on useless stuff. But now we are budgeting smarter and we are saving more. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code lockdown NFL at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. That is monarchboney.com code lockdown NFL for half off your first year. Welcome back to the Lotone Cowboys podcast. We’d like to thank you for making us your first listen every single day. We are previewing the Cowboys linebackers going in to the 2025 season. Two new additions, Landon, uh outside of Jamar James, we’ve got two veterans, Jack Samborn and Kenneth Murray. How do you think those guys fit into the Cowboys defense this year? Yeah, it’s going to be an interesting fit, right? Like, and I think we’ll talk about it in the next segment a lot, but I think one of the biggest questions that we have about this crew is how do you eventually fit together a pairing of Leaf and Oversh? Because last year they both ended up spending a lot of time at will linebacker and obviously they if you want to play them together, they can’t eventually play Will linebacker together. So, I think the way the the Cowboys wanted to buy themselves some time to kind of figure this out and obviously they need time because Overshon is injured. So, until he gets back, that’s not it’s kind of a moot point. So, I think that that’s why the Murray and and Sandborn signings kind of make some sense, right? Like Murray is Go. Yeah. What do you think? Assuming everybody’s healthy on the roster, what’s the ideal lineup for the Cowboys at linebacker? That’s a great question and I I think because it does kind of inform exactly how these guys are going to fall together. Uh I typically think that you know if they are going to be forced to make a choice that one of these guys is gonna have to move to Mike linebacker. To me Leafoul makes more sense especially especially when you look at the the kind of prototypes of what you know Ibrauss has worked with in the past. I I would say that he’s certainly close to, you know, what he’s he’s played at Mike linebacker versus No, I I will say this, Leafal very much compares athletically to Shaq Leonard when he came out of of you know that he’s actually one of his top out of South Carolina State. But I do think you Leaf’s just got longer arms. I think he plays with a little bit heavier hands. Uh I think as a Yeah, he’s physical. And I think the kind of coverage that Leafoul is good at is the kind of coverage that you would ask a Mike Ler linebacker to do. A potential drop into that, you know, that Tampa 2 zone, deep drops, uh just a kind of a hook zone just where he can use his eyes and use his arms cuz he’s got incredible length. He’s got like 34 plus inch arms if you guys had forgotten. So that again, that’s really valuable in closing down passing lanes in the middle of the field. So I think that that’s that’s the case. And so since that’s the case, I don’t know that he’s ready to start as Mike linebacker, especially at early downs and base packages. We’ll see. I think that that’s not something that they’re ready to like thrust upon him with no backup. Enter Kenneth Murray, right? Kenneth Murray comes in. I think Kenneth Murray is going to be your initial starter at Mike linebacker, your early down base package Mike linebacker with Leafal coming in on nickel packages to start, right? Because I think that that’s where he can come in right away. He has experience doing that last year. He’s better in more instinctual in the past coverage game than Murray, but Murray will come in and and handle that situation uh up front. I think Jack Sandborn will come in and basically be the starter at will linebacker, fill in at Mike as needed to. I think Sanour will actually be the green dot guy even though Murray likely will be the uh the starter at Mike. And then I think once oversh returns, you’ll see Sanborn kind of fall over to Sam linebacker, which is a role that we’re going to see a lot more uh under this defense, which is a role that he took as in his last year with Chicago as well, and it fit very well. I just like Jack Samborn a lot. He’s just one of these utility linebackers where maybe he’s a little overmatched as a starter, but you never feel awful about him being on the field. And frankly, you could talk me me into him being the best coverage linebacker on this team outside of De Marv and Overshone. I I wouldn’t be surprised if Sambourne just continues to get snaps after snaps. Even Even you know, if Overshon comes back and Leaf Foul has uh you know develops into year two, he’s just a good NFL linebacker and is young. Like this is not a 28 29 year old linebacker. Like we are still in the prime of his career. He’s in a defense that he knows well. I This fits him very very well. I I you know, we’ve we’ve just discussed a kind of shuffling of chairs that happens once Overshown comes back because obviously Overshon is the star of this defense. I I think that it’s Murray, not Sanborn, who will be the one who takes a step back in his role when Oversh returns. I think if anything, San will, who was actually in Overshon’s role previously, will just his role will change, right? is back to being more of a Sam linebacker, whereas it’s actually Murray whose snaps will decrease as the season goes on as Leafoul takes more of his Mike snaps and as Overshon comes back and to continue to take more of his will snaps. Kenneth Murray is puzzling to me because I just I’ve not seen a great NFL player so far in his career, but one of the things he does really well is blitz. He is a downhill linebacker that is at his best when he’s just going after the quarterback. But yet again, Matt Eberloose does not blitz his linebackers unless he’s planning on changing his scheme up. And maybe he is. I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s an interesting fit in the defense. Well, I’ll tell you what, he, you know, listen, in Chicago, he didn’t do very much of this, but at at in Indianapolis, we saw some of that mug defense that that would like to run. Yeah. Certainly more of it. So maybe there’s a transition back into that just because that’s a there’s a level of familiarity with a lot of these guys. So, you know, I wouldn’t be shocked if we saw more blitzing uh maybe even on early downs, like run blitzing and that sort of thing just to kind of, you know, dictate a little bit more what’s happening on early downs and and try to get these guys in disadvantageous positions. Before we get to the returning starters and their fit with Matt Eberloose, I did want to ask you about some outside veterans because there I saw a couple tweets over over the weekend that hey, Eric Kendricks is healthy. He wants to play. Is that somebody that you would bring back after a pretty decent 2024 season with Dallas? Well, I look I I think we’ve talked about this before. Linebacker is the position that we feel like is most uh analogous to to to running back, right? where you know you’re in a car crash, you know, most of these snaps, right? So, I don’t know that you need to go out, rush out and sign a Kendricks. I mean, there’s there’s an opportunity if there’s an injury that Yeah, sure. It makes a ton of sense for him to come in and and if someone gets hurt, if Murray goes down with an injury or Sanborn, something happens to one of those guys, bring him in to kind of fill one of those roles. Absolutely. But I think right now, you kind of have to see what you’ve got. Leafoul, you kind of have to see how Clark fits into the situations. I know that we, you know, everyone’s kind of written him off, but I think that Clark’s another guy who needs a second look with this group and if and if it’s not working, you know, there’s going to be a couple of different veteran guys that’ll be available on the street. It it just feels like I flu. You just look at the linebackers they’ve signed and the ones they drafted, they want guys with maybe some more athleticism, quick twitch. And I love Eric Hendricks. I thought he was a very good starting linebacker for Dallas last year. And I still think he’s got something left. I just wonder if Eberlu feels like they need a little bit more juice at that position. Let’s Yeah, it’s like a let’s try this first, right? Let’s see what these guys got. And if they look like they’re handling it, man, we don’t need to pick up that call. Let’s Let’s go with the faster guys. Yeah. All right. Let’s talk about the guys that are currently on the Dallas Cowboys roster, including the Marvy over show, and we will get to that next. Welcome back to the Lot Done Cowboys podcast. We’d like to thank you for making us your first listen today. For your second listen, check out the Lot Done NFL scouting show. The NFL draft is over, but the roster moves in the news never stops. Host Kyle Krabs and Joe Marino will make you the most informed NFL fan this off season. Find a lot done NFL scouting on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast. All right, Lena, let’s talk about the returning veterans because we do have a couple, even though this linebacker room is completely turned over. Let’s start with the big one, the Marvian Overshon, who was on his way to a Pro Bowl season before he got injured in the Bengal game. Now, I I think the timelines here are hard to figure out. I know there were some people early on that said, “Hey, maybe Thanksgiving.” I know Overstone’s hoping to be back way before that. But what is his fit like in Ibrauss’s defense and how do the Cowboys protect themselves until he’s able to get back? Those are two great questions. I’ll even add the third one that we brought up before. How do you handle the fact that you’ve got Leafoul and Overshon currently before the season playing the same position, right? I we both kind of agree that him playing Mike I mean sorry Leafoul playing Mike linebacker is the more is the better solution, right? I I it’s overshown an interesting fit in in this, right? Because I I think that usually you see a different type of body type in these types of defenses for their will linebacker. However, obviously, you know, Overshon is an absolute star, you know, so you’re you’re fitting the rest of your def your linebacker room really to kind of support him because what you’ve seen from him is, you know, borderline allp pro level play. I mean, he’s just making plays every single time. the the difference in how I mean it I don’t want to compare him to Sha Lee because like Sha Lee was you know I mean everyone who’s a Cowboys fan remember what that was like right but in that sense that when Sha Lee was on the field the defense feels different I think overshown has some of that right where it feels like there’s the the the physicality is up a notch you know the athleticism your entire athleticism feels different with him on the field in a way that’s just for multip multiplies his Parson, right? Like it’s like somehow he force multiplies Parson like Yeah. Yeah. It’s nuts. But here’s the here’s the problem that I have a little bit is first of all, will Overshon ever get back to the player that we saw last year coming off of a multi-legatement knee injury? And if he does, how long is it going to take him? Because let’s say it’s a 12 month, you know, thing. Over got injured like almost on Christmas last year. So, we’re talking about week 15, week 16, week 17 before he’s even 12 months removed. Can you even base anything around that timeline or do you just have to just imagine that he’s not part of the equation at all? No, I mean, it’s a good question, right? It’s like where at what point does he become a a factor worth planning for or is he just a a surprise that you open up that you know? That’s kind of the way I wish they would go about it because I I don’t want Overshon to feel like there’s a lot of pressure to rush him back onto the field. I would I I would rather him be fully healthy for 2026 and beyond than to get a, you know, a 55% overshown and risk injury again. Fair. I mean, I think that that’s totally it’s totally fair, too. I think a lot of the, you know, this is going to be based on the timeline of of of his recovery and how he’s how he’s doing. So, I agree that, you know, he shouldn’t, you know, push himself to the point where they’re risking reinjury uh to get him back and and the Cowboys shouldn’t put themselves in a position where they’re they’re feeling like that, you know, by their play or by their actions that they’re implying that Oversh needs to get back or that they’re, you know, in trouble. So I I I tend to think that they have done enough right now um to kind of feel like without overshown that you’ve got three guys who are probably you know starter worthy level NFL linebackers, right? And then Clark may maybe you know if you feel like he comes in and can provide you know decent backup behavior backup behavior backup play uh I think that that kind of you know makes you feel better about the situation. Um, but I also think that again we approach linebacker a lot like running back where it’s all it’s it’s it’s totally fine to kind of go into these training camp OTAA situations maybe a little bit young on maybe a little bit understaffed because you always know that that that you’re going to be able to go on the street and pick up exactly what you need at linebacker who to get you through, you know, maybe not a full season superstar type player, but a guy that, you know, depending on if the fit did is right could come in and be a plus player for you at linebacker. Uh and they weren’t even, you know, on a team, you know, in in as early as, let’s say, August or July when you picked them up. So, I think that it is a position that you are still keeping an eye on. You’re not, you know, wiping your hands on completely throughout the off season. I think that you’re at a spot where it’s like, all right, we’ve done the work that we need to for now. Let’s unwrap everything and see how it how it fits in OTAAS and mini camp. And if we feel like we need more, we still have another window. This is not wide receiver 2, right? We still have this is like like this is an easy to fill position. You still have another two or three windows of this post cut down time to go and get a linebacker who could come in and play solid snaps for you. Uh and and and again, it’s not a kind of thing where you have to like get them into training camp to kind of get the chemistry. A lot of these running hit linebackers can be dropped right into a defensive perform right away. Let’s talk about Deone Clark, who is one of the biggest afterthoughts on the roster right now. And it’s wild to me because I was a fan of Deone Clark coming into the 2022 draft. Thought he could potentially be a second round pick like a lot of other people. Uh fell to the fifth round, pick 176. Played pretty well the first two years of his career uh with Dan Quinn. Mike Zimmer comes in and basically says, “Nope, not a fan.” From week 11 on, Landon, he played a combined four snaps on defense. Four. And that’s even with Dearview Overshone getting hurt. It’s even with Eric Kendricks missing multiple games with a calf injury just not a factor at all. Here’s one more or one last thing on Demar Deone Clark. He’s 24 years old. Yes, there were multiple linebackers in this draft that were older than Deone Clark coming in. 6’4, 240 pounds. I have no idea what Matt Eber thinks of him or what he plans to do. Let’s You have his PFF page in front of you open. Could you also read to me first of all, how many snaps? He’s 24 years old. How many NFL snaps has has he played? 1400. So, he’s played 1,400 snaps. He’s only 24 years old. All right. Can you also give me his last like let’s say four games in which he played significant snaps the PFF grades on those games? Yeah. Uh so again anything anything 60 is a generally a good grade for a linebacker. So week one 26 snaps 77.1. Week two 41 snaps 67.0. Uh week six against the Lions 55 snaps 83.4. And I mean that’s basically it. Those were almost all of his snaps where he played more than seven or eight snaps. Look, PFF grades are not the end all. I have my own issues with them, right? But as as a general gauge is kind of just an idea to thousand foot view like maybe it’s not exact, but but giving you idea. I mean, he’s played fantastic every every opportunity he got last year to play against the Lions. He was the only one who played well against the Lions, guys. And and and and and there was just so many different times when he got on the field, he got opportunities and he played well. And it just seems like it got ignored. I just am pitching to this coaching staff. Please, you’ve got him for another year. Like, let’s do something with this, you know, guy. Maybe he could be a player for you. I I haven’t given up on Deone Clark yet. And I don’t think this coaching staff either should. The good news for the Cowboys is you you’re only really going to play two linebackers on what 85 90% of the snaps. They’ve got numbers between Shamar James, Deone Clark, Kenneth Murray, Jack Samborn, Maris Leaf, and then hopefully Oberonne. That’s six linebackers. You only need two. It’s going to be fascinating to see how the what the training camp battle looks like and who emerges victorious and who are the week one starters because I don’t think we know right now. That’s absolutely true. It’s it’s it’s gonna be fun to see how it all plays out to be honest. That is it for today’s show. We’d like to thank you for making Loton Cowboys your first listen every single day. Check out the channel on YouTube. Download the podcast wherever you get your podcast. We are free and available on all platforms. Follow Landon on Twitter, mccobcb. I’m Marcus_mmoer and we will see you right back here tomorrow.

The Dallas Cowboys are reshaping their linebacker corps for the upcoming NFL season, sparking curiosity among fans and analysts alike. With new draft pick Shemar James and veteran additions Kenneth Murray and Jack Sanborn, the Cowboys are poised for a defensive overhaul under coach Matt Eberflus. How will these changes impact the Cowboys’ defensive performance in 2025?

Marcus Mosher and Landon McCool dissect the potential roles of these players, including the return of DeMarvion Overshown from injury and Damone Clark’s uncertain position. They explore Eberflus’s impressive track record in developing linebackers, offering insights into the Cowboys’ evolving defense.

Tune in to discover how these roster moves could redefine the Cowboys’ path to success. Don’t miss the chance to hear expert analysis and predictions on the Cowboys’ linebacker strategy.

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