If you’re starting a rundown of the best Dallas Cowboys player to wear each jersey number, No. 0 is about as straightforward as it gets - and only because there’s no debate to have. The Cowboys have had exactly one player wear it: linebacker DeMarvion Overshown.
That alone makes him the answer, but the path to that number is a little more interesting than the usual jersey-number footnote. The NFL banned No. 0 and No. 00 in 1973 as part of a league-wide push to standardize numbers by position group.
The rules loosened in April 2021, and then in March 2023 the league officially ended the 50-year ban on No. 0, opening it up to any player except offensive and defensive linemen. No. 00 is still off limits.
Overshown, a third-round pick by the Cowboys in the 2023 draft at No. 90 overall, had already been wearing No. 0 in the final years of his Texas Longhorns career. Dallas didn’t get him in that number right away, though. He was first assigned No. 35, while veteran safety Jayron Kearse was expected to wear No. 0 in 2023 after the policy change, before ending up in No. 1 instead.
Overshown barely got to use No. 35 in game action. He played only twice as a rookie before a torn ACL ended his season in the Cowboys’ second preseason game against the Seattle Seahawks.
When he came back in 2024, he switched to No. 13 and put together a strong year: 90 total tackles, eight tackles for loss, 5.0 sacks, four passes defended, and a pick-six in 13 games. That season ended, too, with a torn ACL, MCL, and PCL in a Week 14 game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
The number finally changed in April 2025, when Overshown officially became the first Cowboys player to be assigned No. 0. He said Jerry Jones’ grandson, Paxton Anderson, who had been his teammate at Texas, helped make it happen.
Overshown missed the first nine games of the 2025 season because of the injury, but he returned in Week 11 against the Las Vegas Raiders and wore No. 0 in a Cowboys win. He finished the year with 28 total tackles in six appearances.
Now the only question is what comes next for the first Cowboy to make No. 0 his own.
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