Jaishawn Barham has already given Dallas a reason to believe in him, and the timing could hardly be better. The rookie linebacker’s forced fumble against Washington was a momentum swing that helped turn a close game into a more comfortable win, and it is exactly the sort of play that matters when Baltimore is next on the schedule.
Dallas led 20-13 in the third quarter when Barham forced the fumble. Dee Winters recovered it, and Dallas turned the mistake into a touchdown to move 27-13 ahead. Against a team that had already asked Dallas awkward questions with the ball in Jayden Daniels’ hands, that sequence mattered.
Barham keeps showing up
Barham finished that game with seven tackles and one tackle for loss, and through two games he already has 13 tackles and one forced fumble. For a rookie, that is a strong early return, especially for a player being asked to handle responsibility in the middle of the defense.
That is why the early signs around Barham are so encouraging. The Cowboys have not just seen effort; they have seen impact. In the Washington game, he was part of a defensive group that had trouble finishing plays against Daniels, who ran six times for 69 yards and five first downs. Barham’s turnover was one of the cleaner answers Dallas found all afternoon.
Why Baltimore changes the picture
The test now becomes very different. Dallas is preparing to face Baltimore, a team that brings Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry together in the same backfield picture, and that combination will punish any hesitation from a defense that has already shown some issues when asked to close out running plays.
That is the concern with Baltimore: not just one threat, but two. A running quarterback and a powerful running back ask different questions on every snap, and Dallas will need the same discipline Barham showed against Washington if it is going to handle that challenge.
There is plenty to like about the rookie class, with Barham and Caleb Downs both giving Dallas reasons for hope through two games. But the next step is harder. If Dallas can take the turnover plays it created against Washington and carry that into the Baltimore game, then the optimism around Barham will feel a lot more real.
Barham himself put it in the kind of straightforward terms coaches love, saying: “I’ll take that from a rookie green dot linebacker all day.”
