The New York Giants have rebuilt their wide receiver corps in the 2019 NFL offseason. Recently the idea has been floated out there for the Giants to sign a surprise free agent receiver.
Bleacher Report recently suggested that the Giants should sign former division-rival Dez Bryant. The reasoning behind this suggestion revolves around the Giants’ lack of a true outside receiver.
Golden Tate and Sterling Shepard are both excellent receivers. However, these two both work better from the slot. They both can play outside but are more effective playing as a slot receiver.
Dez Bryant is a 6’2″, 220-pound wideout who dominated on the outside as a member of the Dallas Cowboys years ago. However, Bryant is nowhere near the same player he was in 2014. It would be a terrible idea for the Giants to sign Dez Bryant.
Injury Concerns
Dez Bryant attempted to make a comeback midway through the 2018 NFL season. Bryant’s comeback was almost successful as he was able to strike a deal with the New Orleans Saints. Unfortunately, Bryant suffered a gruesome injury.
Bryant tore his achilles only days after signing with the New Orleans Saints. Dez had to be sidelined for the rest of the season and was not able to play a down as a Saint.
Coming off of a serious season-ending injury makes Dez Bryant an even riskier signing. But Bryant’s injury is not the only concern when considering him as a potential late free agent signing.
Poor Recent Performance
Dez Bryant missed the 2018 season due to injury but also due to the lack of a free agent market. Bryant was not signed by New Orleans until November. He spent the majority of the 2018 NFL season as a free agent with no teams interested in signing him.
This was not due to injury. This was due to Dez Bryant’s poor performance during the 2017 NFL season. After being Dallas’s primary receiver for years, Bryant came crashing down to earth. He played in all 16 games in 2018 and received a healthy 132 total targets. Considering this, his performance was awful.
Dez only caught 69 of those 132 targets in 2018. To make matters even worse, Dez lead the NFL in drops with 12 (Pro Football Focus). A receiver who has not played football in over a year and dropped double the amount of passes that he caught for touchdowns is not what the Giants need right now.
The New York Giants have solid options for their third receiver position, such as Cody Latimer and Corey Coleman. It would be a terrible idea for the Giants to bring in a high-character, high-risk, low-performance player like Dez Bryant in 2019.