Cowboys Place Trevon Diggs, Overshown on PUP, Sign James Houston to Contract

The Dallas Cowboys announced multiple roster moves Tuesday as they opened training camp in Oxnard, California.

The team signed veteran defensive end James Houston, having cut Luiji Vilain to create a roster spot.

Dallas also placed cornerbacks Trevon Diggs and Josh Butler and linebacker DeMarvion Overshown on the active/physically unable to perform list.

Being on the PUP list in training camp doesn't necessarily signal much on its own. Although players are prohibited from practicing, they can be activated at any time.

The important deadline for anybody on the PUP list is Aug. 26, when teams have to trim their roster down to 53 players. Were Diggs or Overshown to still carry the designation past Aug. 26, they'd miss at least the first four games of the regular season.

Diggs was limited to 11 appearances in 2024 after suffering a knee injury for the second successive season. The way the two-time Pro Bowler is handling his recovery was apparently a sticking point for Dallas.

The Cowboys chose to exercise a clause in his contract that lowers his 2025 salary by $500,000 because he failed to participate in enough of their offseason program. He has been rehabbing in South Florida instead.

"The de-escalation is contractual, spelled out," team COO Stephen Jones told reporters. "So he understood when he decided he was going to train in South Florida, he understood what the consequences would be."

General manager Jerry Jones believes it was important to maintain a precedent with Diggs.

"That's in his contract that he doesn't get that unless he's going to be here," he said. "… Those are contractual things as Stephen said, it would be very detrimental to the team not to abide by the agreement."

Overshown, meanwhile, is working back from tears to the ACL, MCL and PCL in his right knee, which occurred in a loss to the Cincinnati Bengals last December.

The 24-year-old posted recently on social media he's optimistic about getting activated at some point this season:

Between the severity of his injury and its timing, it's a safe bet he'll at least miss the start of the regular season and could stay on the PUP list through the final cutdowns next month.