For Dallas Cowboys linebacker Shemar James, the NFL season started slowly. In Week 1 against the Giants, James played exactly one snap on defense, as the team leaned on veterans DeMarvion Overshown and Dee Winters for the bulk of the game, with rookie Jaishawn Barham rotating in as well. But Overshown injured a hamstring in that one, and slowly, the Cowboys’ linebacker rotation began to get jumbled–giving James more and more opportunity as the weeks went on. He played 38 snaps in Week 2. James played 21 snaps, 24 snaps and 28 snaps over the next three weeks. But in Week 6–notably, after Mike Pettine came in to diagnose some of the defense’s problems–James played a season-high 59 snaps against the Packers.
Finally, on Monday night, with Winters out with a leg injury and Overshown returning, James got a surprise: He was told he would be starting alongside Overshown, as the team chose to sideline the rookie Barham more. Not only that, but James wore the green dot as the Mike linebacker.
Cowboys Gave Shemar James the Start
James was very good for the Cowboys on Monday, in fact. He had a team-high six tackles, and his presence on one side of the middle of the defense helped allow Overshown to play more aggressive.
“I was excited,” said James, in speaking with beat reporter Joseph Hoyt of the Dallas Morning News. “I was excited for this opportunity and I’m glad I did the most with it.”
James also appeared with a name change–his uniform reads James Sr. now, after his wife, Erica, gave birth to Shemar James Jr. following the team’s Week 4 win in Houston.
“My wife, she makes it so easy,” James told Hoyt. “When I come home from work, I’m thankful that I can have my wife and kid there, but she never puts too much on me. When I need to watch film, she takes the baby and I watch film and need to go to sleep. When the baby cries, she’ll leave the room so I can sleep. All credit to my wife because she allows me to be this player and actually get my time in.”
Cowboys Starter Reveals Surprise After New Lineup Change