The Dallas Cowboys opened their 2026 campaign with a difficult road test against the New York Giants, but the team’s defensive struggles were compounded by a pair of injuries to key starters.
Safety Malik Hooker was forced to leave the game late in the third quarter with a forearm injury, while linebacker DeMarvion Overshown exited early in the fourth with a hamstring issue.
Also read: Cowboys’ DeMarvion Overshown questionable to return with hamstring injury as Dallas suffers big blow
What happened to Malik Hooker vs. the Giants?
Hooker sustained the injury after he got tangled up with Giants tight end Chris Manhertz during a play late in the third quarter.
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The veteran safety was able to get to his feet and walked off the field under his own power, which offered a brief moment of encouragement for the Cowboys’ sideline.
However, after being taken to the locker room in the fourth quarter, Hooker was ruled out for the remainder of the game. He finished the contest with just one solo tackle before his departure.
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With Hooker unavailable, the Cowboys turned to offseason addition P.J. Locke, a free agent signing out of Denver, to fill the void at safety. Markquese Bell also stood ready to contribute snaps alongside Jalen Thompson in the secondary.
The impact of Hooker’s injury on the Cowboys’ defense
Hooker’s absence dealt a significant blow to a Dallas defense that was already struggling to contain the Giants’ offense.
The 30-year-old safety is in his tenth NFL season and his sixth with the Cowboys, having originally been selected fifteenth overall by the Indianapolis Colts in 2017 out of Ohio State.
He reworked his contract in March on a one-year deal worth five million dollars, and the Cowboys were counting on his experience to anchor the back end of their secondary.
The timing of the injury is particularly unfortunate for Hooker, who is looking to rebound from a 2025 season in which he started twelve games before landing on injured reserve with a toe injury. The year before that, he started all seventeen games and posted a career high of eighty-one tackles, demonstrating the kind of impact he can bring when healthy.
The Cowboys also lost Overshown to a hamstring injury on the same defensive series, leaving the team with two starters sidelined as the game was slipping away.
Dallas trailed 28 to 14 when Hooker was ruled out, and the Giants had already accumulated 357 yards of offense through the early part of the fourth quarter. But in the end, the Giants won the game 28-20.
The Cowboys will now await further evaluation to determine the severity of Hooker’s forearm injury and his availability for the home opener against the Washington Commanders at AT&T Stadium.
For a Dallas team with playoff aspirations, getting its veteran safety back on the field as soon as possible will be a priority in the days ahead.
