OXNARD, Calif. — Goodbye, sweltering heat. Hello, sunshine and breeze.
Along with a graceful Mother Nature, the Dallas Cowboys were met with fans and media upon their arrival in Oxnard, Calif. on Monday afternoon for the start of training camp, and for seventh-year pro and third-year Cowboys safety Jayron Kearse, it was literally a breath of fresh air.
"I love it, this beats Dallas any day," Kearse said. "Working out in 105 degree weather, it gets pretty hectic. Happy to be here in 79 degree weather. I'm just ready to be back out here with the guys, start putting some work in towards the season and go out there and make it a great one."
The words "great" and "special" were thrown around a few times in Monday's media availability when talking about the potential of the team – especially the defense – and Kearse is not shying away from the expectations.
"The confidence level is definitely high," he said. "Confidence is definitely high when you have a lot of guys returning and then you add some other great players like [Stephon] Gilmore. Definitely ready to get this thing going to see where we're at coming out of camp."
However, Kearse is bullish about the product ahead and the fact that remains that nothing has been accomplished just yet.
"It's great on paper," Kearse said about the defense. "But sometimes when you bring a lot of guys together, they're not as good as they are on paper. We just have to continue to work. We have things going in a good direction, but we gotta prove it day in and day out."
As the season approaches, NFL analysts have started to buzz about if the Cowboys have the top defense in the league – an honor that Kearse thinks Dallas has held for a couple of seasons already.
"We feel that way every year," he said. "It's good to get that attention because we've been putting the work in but we gotta go out there and prove it day in and day out starting with tomorrow. We have to prove it every day with every way we do things. We have to think greatness."
The superlatives flow when you catch up with the leaders on the team about the potential for this season, and it only grows as the hours close in before the official start of training camp this week.
For Kearse, he sees it as another opportunity to remain consistent with what they have built to this point.
"We're doing the right things to build a championship defense and a championship team."
