ESPN: Cowboys' Dez Bryant likes operating out of slot

[Idgit]

I wondered how people would try and spin this to somehow blame Dez and give the coaches a pass.
So basically they never used him in the slot because he is too stupid to learn to play in the slot over the course of 7 years.....yet somehow he figured it out enough to be very effective in 1 week.

Come on man.

That's not even remotely what I said there, for the record.

 

[Sportsbabe]

So for the record, fans on this board were smarter than our offensive coaches.

Imagine that.

You guys really think highly of yourselves

 

[Idgit]

I think there's truth to the rumor that Dez is a little slow in comprehending the entire playbook in terms of pass routes.

But ... how hard is it to just give him simple slot routes? It can't be THAT difficult can it?

I'm with you on the slant route thing. I've always sort of thought Tony didn't like them all that much, honestly, since (from purely anecdotal observation on my part) he seems to throw them behind receivers a lot. Maybe Tony likes Dez on longer developing routes since, as gifted as he is his quickness isn't really elite? I don't know, but I do think there's probably a reason for it and it's not the case that it never occurred to Garrett/Callahan/Linehan/Romo that Dez might be good on a slant route.

While we're at it, if anybody wanted to ask why we were throwing stupid TE screens instead of throwing smoke screens or whatever to Dez in week one, that's an area where you'd get agreement from me. Those two-three extra balls probably put an end to the targeting Dez debate, too.

 

[slick325]

'It’s so slowed to where you can understand the coverages and run better routes."

Love Bryant, but it's kind of crazy that he's talking about getting to a point where he understands the coverages in year 7, isn't it? I remember a time when there were raging debates about whether it was Tony throwing bad passes or Dez not making proper site adjustments (this was the *last* round of underestimating Tony if anybody's confused, not the current round where we think the rookie QB is a better player and Tony already). That's not an especial knock on Dez because he was an amazing player before he was reading the coverages properly, but it probably should open the door a crack on the idea that maybe our coaches were playing him early on in the situations they thought he could handle and that not every WR is automatically a fit for a position just because he's a physical freak of nature.

Well said @Idgit. As soon as I read his quote o immediately thought that the staff was only giving him what he could handle at the time. It wasn't necessarily their reluctance to move him into the slot.

 

[Idgit]

Yes, it's evident, but I can't account for your capacity to understand it.

You know, when I was watching the game and Dez dropped that ball, I turned to my buddy and said "that's ok. I've seen Dez make contested catches before, so we're good." Same thing on the earlier drive where Bease didn't catch the opening TD that Prescott threw him. Because I was all "he usually catches those, so we're good. Nobody's perfect." "Terrence normally gets out of bounds when he needs to." Then next week "Sean Lee normally catches that." "Most of the time, Zeke holds onto that ball there. And there."

My buddy was all "Really?" And I was all, "Yeah, really. But you know what really burns me up?" and he's like "Scheme?" and I'm all "No" and he's all "Playcalling?" and I"m all, yeah, the play calling burns me up. We need to put Dez in more positions to not make contested catches because he makes a high enough percentage of them that he's bound to miss one or two of them in game-clenching situations, with our bad defense and playing our 3rd QB." And he's all "Yeah, it's mind-numbing how bad the play calling has been. Remember that time Garrett iced his own kicker?"

Good times.

 

[Idgit]

Well said @Idgit. As soon as I read his quote o immediately thought that the staff was only giving him what he could handle at the time. It wasn't necessarily their reluctance to move him into the slot.

It just reminded me of the earlier debates because, yeah, there was a time people would blame Tony for picks that were pretty obviously the result of Dez not making the right adjustment.

Dez has obviously gotten a lot better at it over the last several seasons. I'm not really knocking him for it as much as just observing that it's not really the strength of his game. As opposed to a guy like Beasley or Witten who make their hay by always being where they're supposed to be from anywhere, on any play. It does sort of make sense that they'd try to call a game that limited the adjustments for Dez/Dak for week 1, though, if that's actually what they were doing.

 

[Blake]

yeah it only took jg 5-6 years to figure that out ??

He's a coach in "training", remember?

 

[dallasdave]

The Dallas Cowboys figured out a way to get the ball to their best playmaker, Dez Bryant, against Washington and it resulted in a 100-yard game and a win.

The biggest thing coach Jason Garrett and play-caller Scott Linehan did was put him in the slot more often, which gives him more route options and makes it harder for cornerbacks to use press coverage, because he’s lined up off the line of scrimmage.

"It’s still the game of football," Bryant said. "Wherever I’m at, I just have to learn it and do my job and play to the best of my abilities. When I’m in there they can’t really double as much and I have room to work. It’s a little bit more fun."

http://www.espn.com/blog/dallas-cowboys/post/_/id/4754277/bryant-likes-operating-out-of-slot

If it gets Dez open do it !

 

[Sydla]

He's a coach in "training", remember?

He's out of training.

The new defense is Garrett is a fine coach held back by Jerry Jones' meddling.

 

[DogFace]

No matter what you say to the contrary, the way they used Dez in game 1 was unimaginative.

Game 2 was in stark contrast and it was blatantly noticeable.

That said, Dez should have helped his QB and caught that coffin corner pass but they also didn't help their #1 but running him out to the right 99.9% of the time in that game.

I disagree. Sending him down the field 35 times as a decoy on go routes is something only a precious few could imagine doing.

It was imaginative.

 

[erod]

yeh we've been saying this since 2013 about him and it really picked up in 2015. how it took this coaching staff this long to figure this out is beyond me man. sheeesh.

The coaching staff wanted to do this all along. He's just not capable of it beyond a limited basis.

The slot receiver has about 3 or 4 options depending on coverage. He HAS to know the right option, or it's going to be an interception. Dez isn't gifted in that regard.

 

[Lutonio]

Why not? Look how productive Fitzgerald has been there for two seasons

 

[BigStar]

Honestly. I believe the coaches have done the best they could with Dez. He is hard to get the ball to... once he gets it he is a killer and can do serious damage. But, during his 7+ yrs in Dallas he has learned about 3 routes and is too slow. I like him and he is an asset but he has always had certain limits and the coaches realise it.

Until they were proven wrong...lazy coaching.

 

[LocimusPrime]

Perhaps we can get a closed circuit feed between Linehan, Garrett, and CZ chat during the game. Easy solution.

The cowboys prolly would have had better records during garretts tenure if he had just logged on the zone and read a few threads.

 

[thechosen1n2]

The Dallas Cowboys figured out a way to get the ball to their best playmaker, Dez Bryant, against Washington and it resulted in a 100-yard game and a win.

The biggest thing coach Jason Garrett and play-caller Scott Linehan did was put him in the slot more often, which gives him more route options and makes it harder for cornerbacks to use press coverage, because he’s lined up off the line of scrimmage.

"It’s still the game of football," Bryant said. "Wherever I’m at, I just have to learn it and do my job and play to the best of my abilities. When I’m in there they can’t really double as much and I have room to work. It’s a little bit more fun."

http://www.espn.com/blog/dallas-cowboys/post/_/id/4754277/bryant-likes-operating-out-of-slot

Imagine that....

 

[dallasdave]

The cowboys prolly would have had better records during garretts tenure if he had just logged on the zone and read a few threads.

 

[conner01]

You can put dez in the slot some but Beasley is also very good there. The easier solution is what they did against the skins, let him run more crossing routes. It's much easier covering a guy on the sideline than running a cross the field and the threat of him going across the field also opens up the potential for double moves and getting deep
Can't really see putting him in slot more than a few times a game and having Beasley outside or on the bench

 

[DallasCowboys2080]

The coaching staff wanted to do this all along. He's just not capable of it beyond a limited basis.

The slot receiver has about 3 or 4 options depending on coverage. He HAS to know the right option, or it's going to be an interception. Dez isn't gifted in that regard.

did he all of a sudden become gifted in this regard?

 

[Bleu Star]

I disagree. Sending him down the field 35 times as a decoy on go routes is something only a precious few could imagine doing.

It was imaginative.

 

[Bleu Star]

The cowboys prolly would have had better records during garretts tenure if he had just logged on the zone and read a few threads.

Real talk! LOL