I liked Dez when he came to Dallas and was proud for him overcoming what he had to in order to play in the NFL.
There were things that I loved about him: his physicality and his huge catch radius were a handful for DB’s. It was great watching him just bull through arm tackles and dragging guys with him into the end zone.
There were also things that I didn’t like about him from the start too: his routes were somewhat less than stellar and his emotional outbursts did nothing to help the team or the perception of the team.
It became clear at the end of his time in Dallas that his physically dominant traits were betraying Dez as they slipped back towards normal, taking away what made him special. The technical aspects of his position were never Dez’s forte, and unfortunately for him, there was no real foundation for him to default to once his diminishing skills began to abandon him.
Dez was never hard to cover... he was just difficult to stop. Once he lost his physical dominance, he was no longer special at all.
The rest of the NFL saw this as well and when it was coupled with his tendency to have “emotional outbursts”, teams just weren’t going to pay much for Bryant to play for them. Dez was in denial about his value to teams and passed on his only decent offer when he said no to the Ravens.
Now he’s recovering from one of the worst injuries a player can have, causing his value to plummet even further than it already was.
Dallas didn’t want him a year younger and before his Achilles tear... I can’t imagine they’d want him - at any price - now that his physical skills have deteriorated that much more.
I don’t think he’d be effective at all in the return game. Those days are gone IMO. He won’t be as effective on routes on a play-to-play basis as the other guys on the team. His routes just aren’t going to be anywhere close to what Cooper, Gallup, Cobb, and even Wilson is going to give the team.
That leaves just his ability to go up for jump balls, and frankly, after his Achilles, I’m not even sure he still has that in him.
The bottom line, IMO, is that there is really nothing that Dez can give to the team except for a media circus when he’s signed and a game by game concern that he’s going to blow up on the sideline.
I see no reason whatsoever for the team to go backwards and bring Dez back. I’d also bet that the team sees it exactly the same way. I don’t think there is a chance in hell that Dez gets another chance to play in Dallas. Like zero percent chance.
And unfortunately for Dez... he might not ever get another chance from any team, which I really do hate to see.
