AUSTIN — DeMarvion Overshown’s rookie season with the Dallas Cowboys was over before it began, but the former Texas Longhorns linebacker is bouncing back in a major way.

After being a third-round pick by the Cowboys in the 2023 NFL Draft, Overshown tore his ACL on Aug. 19 in Dallas’ preseason game against the Seattle Seahawks. He missed the entire regular season, spending time rehabbing instead of aiding Dan Quinn’s defensive efforts.

The Cowboys are still a few months out from the start of the 2024 preseason, but based on recent comments made by head coach Mike McCarthy, it appears that Overshown could be ready for the start of the team’s training camp and beyond.

“D-Mo actually looks really good,” McCarthy said. “We’re respecting the timeline. If I was a doctor, which I’m not, I’d say he’s a little ahead of schedule.”

Overshown, who told reporters last week that he’s put on about 13 pounds of lean muscle mass, hasn’t been able to get back to practicing just yet, something he admitted is an odd feeling for him.

“It’s kinda crazy, I ain’t played football going on a year now,” Overshown said. “That’s been the longest I haven’t played since I started playing and that was (at) 6 years old.”

In five seasons at Texas, Overshown posted 248 total tackles, 17 passes defended, nine sacks, and three interceptions.

Dallas begins its mandatory minicamp on Tuesday, June 4 before starting training camp in late July (dates to be announced). Overshown’s first chance to get back on the field in a real game setting will be on Sunday, Aug. 11 when the Cowboys play the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium in their first of three preseason games.

The Austin City Council voted to ban the construction of new windowless housing units, which health experts say are detrimental to the health of those who live in them. In Austin, thousands of such rooms have been built in recent years to accommodate college students, explains Juan Miro in an article for Daily Legal News.

As an architect and professor, Miro writes that he was shocked to hear that windowless bedrooms were not already illegal in Austin. “Indeed, in New York City – as in major cities around the world – windowless bedrooms are illegal. A percentage of the room’s floor area, set in each city’s building code, determines the minimum window size.” Austin, however, follows the International Building Code, which only calls for natural or artificial light.

Miro points out that the cheaper-to-build windowless rooms have not led to lower rents for students. Rooms that already exist will be legal to rent after the construction ban goes into effect.

“The experiences of students living in windowless rooms in Austin should serve as a cautionary tale for authorities who control building codes.” Miro is working with other advocates to change the International Building Code to close the loophole that allows for windowless rooms, arguing that “Having natural light in buildings should be a human right, not a developer’s choice.”