Cowboys CB leading the league in yards, but for the wrong reason

Remember when I said to watch to buy into the preseason hype of a Dallas Cowboys defender? Well, after the first two weeks of the season, Kaiir Elam is leading the league in a category you don’t want to.

Elam has given up more receiving yards (232) than any other cornerback in the NFL after the first two weeks of the NFL season.

Pro Football Focus gave Elam a 58.2 grade in coverage in Sunday’s win. To be fair, the entire secondary played an absolutely dreadful game, but Elam has got to put up a better performance in the coming weeks.

Not Ideal

You watched the Giants game just like I did, and this secondary is a major issue, and even when they get DaRon Bland back, I don’t think that fixes the issue.

All this zone coverage that Matt Eberflus runs looks awful, and without Micah Parsons, they can’t get enough pressure to run it all the time.

The Cowboys defense runs zone more than any other team in football, and other teams that do it, have the pass rush to get home; The Cowboys don’t.

DaRon Bland is sidelined, while Trevon Diggs is still working back from injury.

What was supposed to be one of the deepest position groups on the roster has suddenly become patchwork, forcing Eberflus to lean heavily on backups and even undrafted players.

Marcus Mosher

@Marcus_Mosher

A good reminder how little training camp success matters in the regular season.nnAnd this isnu2019t a shot at Elam, but most of the stories out of training camps just donu2019t end up translating to the regular season.

11:33 AM · Sep 15, 2025

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The writing was on the wall when Jerry Jones traded for him, he just is not very good. It does not matter that he was a first round pick. Teams miss on these guys all the time.

Elam was unable to beat out the competition in Buffalo, with Christian Benford, Rasul Douglas and Dane Jackson among those who saw more playing time.

Elam totaled 81 tackles, six passes defensed and two interceptions with the Bills.

The Cowboys’ next two games are going to be against the Bears and the Packers. They have to win one of these games to give themselves a chance going into the weaker part of their schedule.

Jerry Jones said that Bland has a chance to play this week, but we will know more later this week when I do the injury report.

The Bears won the offseason like they do every year, yet they are 0-2 once again, and if the Cowboys win this game, it will once again be because they had to score 35 plus points to beat a bad Bears team.