Getty Ravens WR Dez Bryant
For the third time this season, Dez Bryant will suit up for the Baltimore Ravens. For the first time ever, he’ll do so against his beloved former team.
When or if the Week 13 game between the Cowboys and Ravens takes place — it was rescheduled from Thursday, Dec. 3 to Monday, Dec. 7 due to Baltimore’s COVID-19 outbreak — Bryant will be greeted in more ways than one by his ex-teammates.
“I need a jersey. I need his jersey… I look up to him. He’s like a big brother to me. …I can’t wait to hit him,” Dallas linebacker Jaylon Smith told reporters Monday, via WFAA’s Mike Leslie.
To which Bryant obliged.
“My brotha for real.. he got it,” he said in response to Smith’s tweet.
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Dez, Ravens By the Numbers
Out of football since 2018, following his Cowboys release and lengthy recovery from a torn Achilles tendon, Bryant was signed to the Ravens’ practice squad on Oct. 27. He was promoted to the active roster on Nov. 7 and has since recorded four catches for 28 yards across 37 snaps for the Lamar Jackson-led offense.
Which ranks among the bottom half of the NFL in total yards (343.9 per game), 12th in scoring (26.8 points per game), and 31st in passing (183.4 YPG). The only thing they do well is run the ball, averaging 160.5 YPG, the league’s second-best mark.
Conversely, the Cowboys — coming off a Thanksgiving blowout loss in which Washington running back Antonio Gibson notched 115 yards and three touchdowns — rank dead last in points allowed (32.6) and against the run (156.4 YPG). Their strongest asset is their pass defense, which surrenders the 12th-least YPG (225.6).
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Jaylon Responds to Jerry
Part of the reason for Dallas’ defensive struggles this season, aside from injuries and the questionable scheme employed by coordinator Mike Nolan, falls squarely on Smith, who’s faced intense scrutiny for blown assignments and dreadful coverage effort.
In a radio interview last week, team owner/general manager Jerry Jones curiously dubbed Smith’s $63.75 million contract extension a “home run” and defended the intensive “resources” used to lock down both him and RB Ezekiel Elliott in 2019.
“Well, I like what we’ve spent and what we’ve done even going all the way back to picking him on Jaylon Smith,” Jones said on 105.3 The Fan, via Blogging The Boys. “That’s been a home run. He’s everything and more we thought he could be, coming back from the injury, when we got him in the second round. He was on the first round board. So that is absolutely a winner.”
Asked about Jones’ remarks, Smith told reporters Monday that “we just got to find a way. It starts with myself. It starts with all of the leaders putting forth our best efforts and then having that trickle-down effect.”
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Follow Zack Kelberman on Twitter: @KelbermanNFL