If the Cowboys had cut receiver Dez Bryant in the middle of March, he quite possibly would have landed a new job quickly, and he’d be closing in on getting ready for his first year with a new team. With the Cowboys waiting a month, the seats were largely filled when Dez finally was free.
With the regular season less than two weeks away, and with the Browns offering him less than $5 million in base dollars for a one-year deal in 2018, Bryant remains content to wait for the right opportunity.
“I just have to take care of me first,” Bryant said overnight on Twitter. “I will play ball this year just might be a lil bit later in the year.. we will see.”
The latest potential opportunity arose in Jacksonville with the season-ending injury to Marqise Lee, but there has been no suggestion that the Jaguars will make a play for him, even though the retweeting of a video featuring Reggie Bush advocating Bryant to Jacksonville seems to indicate that Bryant believes he could give the Jaguars a reliable option on third downs.
Bryant’s willingness to wait suggests that he’ll potentially do what Darrelle Revis did in 2017 — pick a contender late in the year, use the balance of the regular season to get fully up to speed, and then be ready to make a real impact in the postseason. It still won’t be easy for Dez, who spent his entire career with one and only one team in one offense playing one position in that offense, to get acquainted with new city, new locker room, new coaching staff, new playbook, new terminology, new everything on the fly.