Dez Bryant lobbies for return to Cowboys in ‘role they gave Witten’

The former Dallas wideout wants to return to the team under new coach Mike McCarthy, and he’s taking to social media to make his case.

There are suddenly lots of new faces around The Star in Frisco and just as the recent coaching churn quiets down, it will be time for free agency. More new faces. Then the draft. More new faces. Suffice it to say that when the 2020 season finally rolls around, this Cowboys team will look drastically different. But there’s one familiar face out there hoping he can be one of the “new guys” for Year One of the McCarthy era.

Dez Bryant wants to throw up the X in Dallas again.

The three-time Pro Bowl wide receiver is currently a free agent, having been let go by the Cowboys in 2018 after eight seasons. Nine weeks into the 2019 campaign, he signed with the New Orleans Saints, only to rupture his Achilles tendon during his second practice session with the team. He’s spent the time since rehabbing with an eye toward making an NFL return, and now with Jason Garrett out as Cowboys coach, Bryant is lobbying hard to make a return to Dallas.

Bryant’s tweet on Sunday certainly raised a few eyebrows and started the wheels turning for more than a few fans, including Ezekiel Elliott’s mom.

Also chiming in was Jets safety Jamal Adams. Many believed the Cowboys should have traded for Adams prior to 2019’s deal deadline. They tried, but were unsuccessful. Some feel that the team should make another run at him during this offseason, as the position remains a weakness. The league’s top safety- a Texas native himself who has made no bones about the attractiveness of playing in Dallas- tantalized fans with the notion of being teammates with Bryant, presumably (though not explicitly) while wearing a Cowboys uniform.

It’s a fun idea to noodle over, even if it’s far-fetched.

If you’re going to really “think about it,” as Bryant suggests, the first thing to consider is what Bryant actually meant by “the role they gave Witten.”

Sign Bryant to play tight end? Bryant has always been athletic and has kept himself in fighting shape, according to the workout videos he posts often on social media.

But to think that Mike McCarthy, in the midst of the countless changes he’s already bringing to the Cowboys, is going to sign a 31-year-old wide receiver with a repaired Achilles, 750-plus days since his last NFL reception- and redesign the entire offense just to line him up at tight end- borders on absurd.

Could Bryant play tight end? Maybe technically. But Bryant last measured in at 6-foot-2, 220 pounds. Jason Witten is 6-foot-6 and weighs 263. Blake Jarwin is 6-foot-5, 260. The numbers don’t add up; Bryant isn’t the next Cowboys tight end.

But was Dez referring to something else when he mentioned Witten’s role?

In his first season back after a one-year retirement, Witten was expected to take fewer snaps on the field. Or that’s how it was sold, with the theory that he would serve largely as a mentor to the promising backup Jarwin, subbing in to provide multiple looks and giving defenses another weapon to worry about in key situations.

Witten ended up being on the field for 75 percent of Dallas’s offensive snaps, compared to just 38 percent for Jarwin. So that role sort never played out in real life, due in part to Witten’s competitive nature that no doubt made it hard for him to stay on the sideline, but also in part because of Garrett’s long relationship and loyalty to the future Hall of Famer.

For his part, the 11-time Pro Bowler hasn’t ruled out coming back for a 17th NFL season, and he hasn’t said it would have to be as a Cowboy. With Garrett gone, Witten’s spot on the Dallas roster isn’t cemented. And were he to return, his normal amount of playing time isn’t guaranteed. As Bryant said, “no shot at Witten,” but the 37-year-old is no longer producing as an elite tight end. Most weeks, truth be told, he didn’t even look like the best tight end on the Cowboys.

All of that is to suggest that Bryant offering his discounted services as what 2019 Witten was supposed to be: a motivator in the locker room, an example on the practice field, and a veteran leader on the sideline… who also takes a handful of snaps and provides a legitimate threat in a few creative personnel packages alongside the other players he listed in his tweet… well, that idea has some merit.

But whether the team would welcome him back is another matter.

Bryant was typically vocal as he left Dallas. While he has deep affection for owner Jerry Jones, he was less than complementary of players like Sean Lee, who still commands respect with most guys on the roster. And after the kid-gloves treatment that the front office gave to Garrett throughout their amicable divorce, inviting his loudest critic back for a second tour of duty in the building may prove to be more headache than help.

Ultimately, it will be McCarthy who almost assuredly has the only say. While Bryant and McCarthy were on opposing ends of one of the most infamous plays in Cowboys history, there’s no indication that the new coach would be eager for a reunion.

“I said after the game, ‘That was one hell of an athletic play.’ I was impressed,” McCarthy said of Bryant’s goal-line grab in 2015’s NFC Divisional Round against the Packers. “It was a great catch, I can say now. But it wasn’t then, technically.”

Dez caught it in 2015. But that doesn’t mean he’ll catch the break he’s looking for as he pleads for a 2020 return to the Cowboys.

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