With Bill Callahan as their new offensive coordinator, the Cowboys won’t be inviting former Raiders receiver Tim Brown to practice any time soon. But in case anyone is interested in hearing what he thinks, Brown has some ideas about how Cowboys receivers Dez Bryant and Miles Austin can stay healthy.
When it comes to Bryant, Brown said on ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM that the way Bryant plays is simply too physical to be consistent with making it through 16 games a season.
“This guy scares me so much,” Brown said of Bryant. “I’m just talking about the way he plays the position. It’s like a kamikaze. He is so physical and so out of control at times. The problem with that is that when you’re dealing with a guy who is 6-3, 6-4 who has a pretty large frame, it’s almost impossible to protect this guy if he is not going to protect himself. . . . You have to figure out, ‘How can I play this game for 16 weeks or 20 weeks or whatever, and be healthy week in and week out.’ Is it possible? Absolutely it’s possible. But I have to smart about when I fight for yards. When it’s one guy fight. When it’s two guys, maybe not. When it’s three guys, man get your butt down.”
Brown added that Austin needs to re-think the way he keeps himself in shape, both with his workouts and his nutrition.
“I said this to Miles: ‘Whatever you’re doing, obviously you have to look at something differently,’” Brown said. “I don’t know if it’s products that he’s putting in his body. I’m not saying it’s anything illegal. You can put too much caffeine in your body and it can jack you up, but whether it’s that or if it’s the fact that his training is not [right], because one of the things we used to do that was really beneficial was we always trained in our football shoes. I know nowadays they do a lot of track running. They do a lot of indoor type stuff, and you can’t put those football shoes on. But when you’re cutting and running in football shoes, it’s totally different than running in track shoes.”
Brown didn’t go so far as to say that Austin and Bryant are “sabotaging” their careers, but he does think they need to change their ways.