Jayron Kearse throws it back to his Clemson days with Cowboys jersey number switch

Dallas Cowboys starting safety Jayron Kearse was among the five players assigned new numbers on Thursday ahead of the 2023 regular season.

Formerly No. 27, Kearse is switching to the No. 1 jersey, which is the number he wore during his collegiate playing days at Clemson.

Asked whether “Clemson Kearse” is coming back to the field, the safety said, “Yes sir, back at it.”

“Back to my college days,” Kearse said on Thursday, via DallasCowboys.com. “It was a good time in college. I had a lot of good plays, so I’m trying to recapture that before this season starts. It’s like when I first got here and I went from No. 32 to No. 27. It just felt good, mentally, like, ‘Alright, I got my number back. I’m good.’

“So, now I’m in No. 1, and I’m hoping to take that next step. You can’t miss a No. 1 on the field.”

Along with Kearse, kicker Brandon Aubrey (17), safety Markquese Bell (14), fullback Hunter Luepke (40), and new cornerback Noah Igbinoghene (19) also received new numbers.

Kearse started in 15 of Dallas’s 17 games this past season while battling off-and-on injuries. In those 15 games, he recorded a total of 101 tackles, 67 solo, nine tackles for loss, two interceptions, and one sack.

Kearse has journeyed around the NFL over his career. After going in the seventh round to the Minnesota Vikings out of Clemson back in 2016, he has had stops with the Detroit Lions and the Baltimore Ravens before finally landing with the Cowboys.

The Cowboys signed Kearse to one one-year deal before they ponied up for a two-year deal worth $10 million last spring. He’s now due to become a free agent once again after the season.

Kearse: ‘We ain’t taking no sh*t from nobody’

After a scuffle broke out between multiple players during Cowboys training camp, Kearse made headlines when he issued a stern warning to the rest of the NFL.

“We ain’t taking no sh-t from nobody. All 32 teams — we ain’t taking sh-t from nobody,” Kearse said after practice, via the team’s website. “Whether it’s our offense or the next offense. We’re trying to show we’re the best in the business, so it gets spicy out here. It’s gonna get spicy on Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays; whenever we line up, that’s how we’re gonna come.”

The Dallas Cowboys defense led the league in takeaways last season and they have big plans to do it again. Right now, they have several members of the secondary out due to injury, but they could return before kickoff in Week 1 versus the Giants.