Todd Archer, ESPN Staff Writer 6y

Cowboys have time to prove they're better without Dez Bryant

FRISCO, Texas -- As coach Jason Garrett spoke about the decision to release Dez Bryant, he said the move was made in the best interest of the Dallas Cowboys.

The logical follow-up: How are the Cowboys better without Dez Bryant?

“There are a lot of factors that go into making a decision like this,” Garrett said Tuesday. “We feel like we like the competition we have at the receiver position right now. We’re excited about the couple of new guys we brought in. And we’ll have competition throughout that position and we’ll go forward.”

Garrett never really answered the question, did he? But reading between the lines is fairly simple. The “factors” that go into the decision are mostly financial. The Cowboys did not believe Bryant was worth the $12.5 million base salary and did not want him counting $16.5 million against the salary cap. There were production issues as well with Bryant’s numbers not coming close to what he was being paid.

Without Bryant, the Cowboys have Terrance Williams, Allen Hurns, Cole Beasley, Deonte Thompson, Ryan Switzer and Noah Brown as receivers who have caught a pass in a regular-season game. They very well could add a receiver early in the draft as well.

The Cowboys believe that will be enough. Others might disagree.

“When you go against a guy like that on a daily basis and you’re around someone that competitive and someone that passionate about the game, it makes you better,” safety-turned-cornerback Byron Jones said of Bryant. “It brings up your standard. And that’s what it did to this team.”

Safety Jeff Heath made the Cowboys as an undrafted free agent in 2013. The things he saw Bryant do in practice and in games, he did not see in college at Saginaw Valley State.

“He’d always make crazy catches in practice, but we kind of got used to it, we’d see it so much,” Heath said. “As a rookie, I would kind of be impressed by it, and then I’d be like, ‘That’s Dez doing what he does.’”

The Cowboys don’t have a receiver who can do what Bryant does, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be successful. In the three games he missed with a knee injury in 2016, the Cowboys went 3-0. They put up more than 400 yards of offense in all three games. They controlled each game by utilizing running back Ezekiel Elliott.

It would be impossible for the Cowboys to know today that they are better without Bryant. They don’t need to be better today. They need to be better when the season starts in September.

“It’s a challenge,” tight end Jason Witten said. “Dez can do so many prolific things. I think there’s a lot of things when you go through something like [Bryant being cut]. Decisions are made, and as players, you have to be able to embrace them and move forward. That happens personally in your position and it happens as a team as a whole. So the team has to grow stronger through that, and our team has done that in the past.

“You certainly miss a guy like him. He’s so dynamic with what he did and how he played. Our team just has to find guys that can make those plays. We’ve got a good roster. It’s a young roster. We’ve added some pieces to it. That’s what the next few months are for: You go and build that.”

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