Washington Redskins cornerback Josh Norman isn’t going to be playing around, and he’ll shut down Dez Bryant in their Week 13 showdown.
Last season, Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant caught 50 balls for 796 yards and had eight touchdowns, overall. A fair chunk of that yardage came against Josh Norman and the Washington Redskins.
In their first meeting of the 2016 season, Bryant was targeted 12 times and caught seven, resulting in 102 yards, averaging 8.5 yards per target. Later in the season, that number dropped, though he still had success with five catches for another 72 yards.
However, this number will drop again in the 2017 season. Why? Josh Norman. Norman will get the chance to shut him down, as per Redskins defensive coordinator Greg Manusky (via Pro Football Talk). He said the travel will take some work, but he’s all for it:
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"“It’s hard for them to travel at times, but will we do that? Yeah.”"
How significant is this? According to Pro Football Focus, in the past three seasons Bryant has only had four catches against Norman out of the 12 times he was targeted under Norman’s watch. Furthermore, Bryant has averaged only 3.2 yards on those targets.
Looking back at the numbers in the second meeting of the two teams last season, it appeared the Cowboys were making some slight changes in their targeting. Bryant’s numbers were almost cut in half, perhaps intentionally. After all, maybe moving him out of the focal-point of the offense would frustrate Norman, which isn’t a bad idea.
With that said, that’s not something to count on the Cowboys doing in 2017. Bryant is too good to take him out of the gameplan.
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Besides, they both want this. There’s something about burning one of the top corners in the league that every wide receiver would love to see on SportsCenter come Monday morning. That’s going to make every Redskins game a game to watch, especially Week 13. Their first meeting, Week 8, will be a preliminary battle to see what has changed. Week 13, however, will be the real battle, and Norman will prevail.