Dez Bryant & Returns
When Dez Bryant is returning punts, he’s brilliant. When Dez Bryant is a receiver, he’s brilliant. When Dez Bryant is returning punts and receiving… well, he just can’t last the whole game.
I love our commentary on The Cowboys, and I hope you do too, but I read other blogs and news reporters’ commentary too and sometimes it’s just absurd. Today, during a chat session, David Moore of DallasNews.com responded to a reader who was making the claim that the Cowboys need Dez Bryant as a receiver and not a returner with the following:
I have to disagree with you about him as a return man. I think the Cowboys lose a huge weapon when he’s not back to return punts. Let’s go back to the second game of last season, when he returned a punt 62 yards for a touchdown against the Chicago Bears.
This strikes me as the kind of ridiculous thing I might say after a few beers, but ridiculous none the less. Let’s look back at that Chicago game for a second. Ok, let’s stop looking back, because it was embarrassing, we lost, and Dez Bryant? Well, he did have that touch down on the return, but he was also third in receiving yards to Roy Williams and Miles Austin. The return was great for us, but a receiver on the opposite side of Austin (who had nearly triple the yards of Dez) would have been better.
The Dallas Cowboys can not risk tiring, or injuring Dez Bryant any more, they need him to be an elite team this year, and that’s just not going to happen with him returning punts.
