A scoring correction stripped the Michigan product of an all-time PFF record, yet his elite efficiency and emergence as Dallas’ defensive signal-caller signal a new star's arrival.
PFF took 8.3 points off Jaishawn Barham’s grade Monday, wiping away what had briefly been a historic start for the Dallas Cowboys rookie.
His preliminary 93.1 mark was the best by a first-year defender with at least 75 snaps through Week 2 in PFF history before the final All-22 review dropped him to an 84.8.
The record disappeared. Dallas’ growing trust in Barham did not, and that might say more about his first two NFL games than any grade ever could.
PFF initially published Barham with a 93.1 overall grade through 79 defensive snaps, pending its final Week 2 review. At that number, he ranked first among all qualified NFL defenders — rookie or veteran — while sitting atop PFF’s record book among rookie defenders with at least 75 snaps through two games.
The final review changed the numbers. Barham’s overall grade fell to 84.8, putting him behind Minnesota Vikings linebacker Ivan Pace Jr.’s 85.2 start in 2023 among rookie defenders with 75-plus snaps through Week 2 since 2022.
Even after the adjustment ... Barham still leads every qualified rookie defender in football. That grade has also come with Dallas asking him to play like the linebacker running its defense.
Barham has lined up in the box on 69 of his 79 defensive snaps and rushed the passer just four times. That is a much more traditional linebacker workload than the tweener label that followed him out of Michigan suggested he might receive.
The Dallas Cowboys have asked him to fit the run, drop into coverage, diagnose what is coming and communicate the defense. By his second regular-season game, they added the green dot.
Barham has given them little reason to lighten that workload.
Across 37 coverage snaps, he has allowed four catches on four targets for two total yards — the fewest surrendered by any qualified linebacker. His finalized 83.4 coverage grade ranks seventh at the position.
His work against the run has been just as clean. Barham owns an 80.0 run-defense grade, fifth among linebackers with at least 35 run-defense snaps. PFF has credited him with two stops and zero missed tackles across 38 such snaps, and none of those 38 received a negative grade.
No other linebacker has matched that through two weeks. Barham has six total stops and one missed tackle overall while also generating a pressure on four pass-rush opportunities.
Then DeMarvion Overshown went down.
With Overshown sidelined by a hamstring injury against Washington, Barham started at MIKE and wore the green dot in his second NFL game. That put Christian Parker’s calls in the rookie’s helmet and left Barham responsible for helping set the front and getting the rest of the defense aligned.
Barham had already handled that responsibility before.
“It feels normal. I did it in college,” Barham said in August when asked about wearing the green dot.
He also understood there was plenty left to learn.
“I still got a lot of work to do. I’m just trying to get better every day.”
A few weeks later, Dallas handed him the job for real.
Barham finished the Cowboys’ 37-20 win over the Washington Commanders with seven tackles, a tackle for loss, a pressure and a forced fumble. He left the game with a stinger before returning, then made his biggest play of the afternoon on his first snap back.
Dallas led 20-13 in the third quarter when Barham crashed down on a Washington screen and punched the ball loose. Dee Winters recovered at the Commanders’ 13-yard line, and Dak Prescott found Jake Ferguson for a touchdown two plays later.
Barham went from the medical tent to helping create a two-score lead in one snap.
“We’ve all got huge trust in him,” Quinnen Williams said after the game while discussing Barham taking on the green dot.
Barham’s forced fumble didn’t just help Dallas turn a seven-point lead into a two-score advantage. It also continued a piece of rookie history the Cowboys had already started one week earlier.
Caleb Downs forced a fumble in the opener. Barham followed in Week 2.
As we previously found, they became the first same-team rookie tandem in 25 years to have two different first-year defenders force fumbles in the team’s opening two games.
The last pair wore Cowboys uniforms, too.
John Nix forced a fumble in the 2001 opener before Markus Steele did the same in Dallas’ second game. Twenty-five years passed before another rookie pairing matched it … Downs and Barham needed two Sundays.
Barham’s start stands out even more against what has happened around him. Dallas sits 31st in defensive EPA per play and 30th in defensive success rate through two games, per PFF, leaving Parker’s unit with plenty to clean up as the season settles in.
Its rookie MIKE has been one of the few pieces that hasn’t looked overwhelmed.
Dallas has already trusted Barham with the green dot, 69 snaps in the box, coverage responsibilities and the middle of a defense still trying to find its footing.
He has responded by allowing two yards through the air, missing one tackle and forcing a turnover that helped swing Sunday’s win, all while pairing with Downs to reach a Cowboys rookie milestone untouched in 25 years.
PFF’s final review erased the 93.1 and the record attached to it. Dallas still came out of Week 2 with the same conclusion it had before the grade changed: Barham looks ready for everything it has put on his plate.
