Dez Bryant NFL Draft scouting report

Dez Bryant

6’2, 215 pounds | Oklahoma State

Strengths: The most noticeable thing about Bryant are his hands. They’re incredibly large and strong, which allows him to make a lot of difficult catches in traffic. Bryant’s hands are so impressive the New York Times wrote a whole story about them.

Does a really good job concentrating on the ball when it’s in the air. Rarely has to make body catches. Often showed good awareness of where the sidelines were and can get his feet inbounds.

Has a great grasp of a play while it’s developing. Knows when to come back to the quarterback to get open and gain positive yards. Excels catching the ball in the air and is a great red zone target. Shows the agility in the air to twist his body around and shield defenders off.

Bryant has good size at 6-foot-2 and 215 pounds. More importantly, he knows how to use it after the catch. In the open field, Bryant is a bull to take down. He can easily break arm tackles and shrugs off tacklers who don’t wrap up.

Lateral quickness and speed is as a good as when he’s going straight line. Very good stop and go receiver. Doesn’t take long strides which gives him some separation. Also uses head fakes well to trick cornerbacks.

Weaknesses: The biggest complaint about Bryant is his playing speed. Unlike Randy Moss, for instance, he probably won’t time especially well. Fast cornerbacks can stick with him down the field and edge him over to the sideline.

A step slow off the snap. Could improve his suddenness to beat jams better with his quickness.

Because he comes from a spread offense, Bryant hasn’t been asked to run a full route tree and may have to learn some in this area. His best route is clearly the quick slant.

Too often, Bryant likes to initiate contact. While this was fine against smaller Big 12 defensive backs, this could get him in trouble with more aggressive NFL defenses.

Can get knocked off his route and get knocked off his game somewhat (see this year’s Georgia game). Could do a better job of properly securing the ball after the catch.

Typical of most spread receivers, Bryant can struggle blocking against the run.

Never really considered a leader on the Oklahoma State offense. Some question if he’s a system player, much like former Oklahoma State star Rashaun Woods.

Final word: A lot of the same complaints that were made about Michael Crabtree can be made about Bryant. They both played in a spread offense. Neither has blazing speed but have the hands and high-point agility to make up for it.

The big difference is their attitudes. While Crabtree was known to have an inflated sense of his own self worth, Bryant is known to be a down-to-earth individual. He had a rough upbringing, being raised by a single mother who spent 18 months in prison for selling drugs.

Trouble with academics in high school scared away some teams, but his football acumen is sound. It’s impossible to say how well Bryant will be able to digest an NFL playbook, but he just knows how to get open.

To do that, he can rely on his athleticism and quickness. Bryant may not be terribly fast, but he strong and shifty. No receiver in college football could cut on a dime as well as Bryant. That allowed him to get open for a split second and that’s when his elite-level hands come in.

Over two and a third seasons, Bryant had 147 receptions for 2,425 yards and 29 touchdowns. He’s also a very good special teams player who took back three punts for a touchdown.

In Crabtree, Calvin Johnson, Larry Fitzgerald and Andre Johnson, there have been some special receivers in the draft this past decade. Bryant has the ability to be as good as any of them. He’s like a better version of Anquan Boldin.