Less than a full quarter into the Sunday night game between the Jets and Cowboys, people were already thinking “this dude is going to be a beast” while admiring Dez Bryant. Tony Romo looked toward Bryant early and often and Bryant rewarded his quarterback by coming up with a couple of fantastic catches. After firing up all of his fantasy owners to kick off 2011, Bryant suffered a quad injury and failed to contribute for the remainder of the night.
We know Dez has had some off-field issues and a few financial problems, but he has the type of talent that could make him one of the NFL’s top receivers. In order to do that, Bryant will have to prove he can remain healthy. According to a former Cowboys receiver who happened to wear jersey No. 88, Bryant needs to show he can finish games.
“You saw what happened in the fourth quarter,” Drew Pearson told 103.3 FM’s Ben and Skin Show Monday according to the Dallas Morning News. “We had wide receivers that couldn’t finish the game. Come on! Jeez! The first quarter was spectacular. Great job, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah. But now we need you in the fourth quarter and you can’t even run? You catch three passes in the first quarter and then you get targeted five times after that and you don’t make any catches? . . . Let’s not be so high on this guy who hasn’t really done anything. He missed four games last season, he comes in this game and he can’t finish it out.
“Dez’s first move was a jump, a hop-step. What is that?” Pearson continued. “That’s one second gone from the pass route. I mean, what is that? Come on. . . . Yeah, he’s raw. He’s a monster. That’s what monsters do, I guess. You see that in high school kids running routes like that.”
Bryant obviously has a lot to prove and has not done anything worthy of being crowned, but Pearson clearly has some sort of personal vendetta against the Oklahoma State product. He still has to show Cowboys fans he can stay healthy and produce for a full season, but shouldn’t we give him more than a season and a game to do it? It sounds like Pearson would have Dez change jersey numbers if he had his way.
Chest bump to Pro Football Talk for the story.
