The Cowboys’ loss to the Packers on Sunday brought their run defense into focus. Green Bay ran it more than it threw it, rushing for 207 yards on 39 carries. So, while the Cowboys’ first priority on Sunday is slowing running back Dalvin Cook, they also know they will have to deal with Justin Jefferson at some point.
“He’s the best receiver in the league,” safety Jayron Kearse said Wednesday, via the team website. “The tape doesn’t lie. You can say whatever you want to say. You turn on the tape, you see it. He gets open against everybody. He plays [well] against every opponent. Every top corner you put in front of him, he’s going out and he’s making his plays. . . . The tape doesn’t lie.”
Jefferson has 1,060 yards through nine games this season, putting him on pace for 2,003 yards. The NFL record for receiving yards in a season is 1,964 set by Calvin Johnson in 2012.
Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill leads the league with 1,148 receiving yards this season, but he has played 10 games.
Jefferson has 69 receptions, four touchdowns and averages 15.4 yards per reception.
The Cowboys limited Jefferson to two catches for 21 yards in a win over the Vikings last season after he had three receptions for 86 yards and a touchdown in a 2020 game between the teams.
The Cowboys, though, are well aware of what Jefferson did last week. The two-time Pro Bowler had 10 catches for 193 yards and a touchdown, including an all-time catch on fourth down on the team’s final drive in regulation.
“Definitely we saw it,” said Kearse, who spent his first four seasons in Minnesota before going to Detroit and then Dallas. “Definitely one of the [best] catches in this league’s history. It’s just some of the things that he does, and [it’s] further proof of the point of him being the best receiver doing it right now.”