Michigan's Jaishawn Barham could give offensive lines 'problems' as an edge rusher
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan Wolverines football junior Jaishawn Barham started all 12 regular-season games at middle linebacker in 2024. The transfer spent the previous two seasons at Maryland, where he was a versatile weapon on defense.
A position switch to edge rusher could be in the cards for the 6-foot-3, 248-pound Baltimore native, after a solid season but one that didn’t see him earn All-Big Ten accolades or the like. Barham ranks second on the team with 65 tackles, adding 3.5 tackles for loss and a sack with 2 pass breakups.
“You see the frame and you see the violence he plays with,” Michigan senior EDGE TJ Guy, who posted 5.5 sacks during the 2024 regular season, said when discussing the position switch.
One of the ways Barham impacted the game was with his pass-rush skills, which have always been at a high level. He registered 18 quarterback pressures, the most on the Michigan team by a non-defensive lineman and more than rotational D-linemen Cameron Brandt (13) and Rayshaun Benny (13). That figure also ranks fourth in the Big Ten among inside linebackers. Notching 18 pressures on 86 opportunities means that Barham impacted the quarterback on 20.9 percent of his pass-rush snaps.
Michigan runs a lot of exotic looks up front under coordinator Wink Martindale, which allowed Barham to set up outside on the line of scrimmage — similar to where an edge rusher lines up — on 72 of his 596 defensive snaps, according to PFF. He lined up at EDGE on 192 plays during his two seasons at Maryland from 2022-23.
Guy — who’s leaning toward returning for next season and would potentially be a projected starter at the position — believes that Barham’s skill set could be well-suited as a player on the perimeter of the defensive line.
“I think it just gives us another piece that the offense has to worry about, for real, counting him as a rusher and a dropper,” Guy noted. “It’s gonna be problems for offensive lines, so it’s gonna be fun.”
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Barham hasn’t spoken to the media since arriving at Michigan last January, and he’s been described as quiet. That’s exactly the word Guy used, too.
“Quiet, yeah,” he said. “Y’all ain’t gonna talk to him, probably, ever. He’s quiet. He’s real quiet, real too himself. But once you get cool with him, he gets cool with you. He’s a really funny guy. He’s funny.”
One who covered him at Maryland, where he did see a higher percentage of his snaps come at EDGE, believes that position is where he has the best future.
“If Michigan puts him at an edge rusher position, which I think is where the talent really is for him and, in my opinion, is his best chance to go play and have a career at the next level,” George Gerbo of The Washington Times said.
“It’s these younger guys that are so light as edge rushers but have the power. A 300-pound offensive lineman isn’t stopping these guys anymore, because these guys are so big and powerful, even with the speed. I believe Michigan, if they utilize him in a rushing set, that he he’s going to have a tremendous amount of success and you’re going to hear his name every game, if not multiple times again.”
