Free agent wide receiver Dez Bryant visited with the Cleveland Browns recently, and as teased, parts of his visit with the team and head coach Hue Jackson were featured in Tuesday’s episode of HBO’s Hard Knocks.
Hue Jackson to Dez Bryant: Browns will make ‘biggest turnaround in sports history’
The latest episode of HBO’s “Hard Knocks” features excerpts from the meeting between free agent Dez Bryant and Browns coach Hue Jackson.
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The preview footage showed Bryant arriving at the facility and introducing himself to everybody he came into contact with, and a brief snippet of his talk with Jackson. The episode didn’t go into too much more detail than that.
“What are you looking for?” Jackson asks Bryant to start.
“I’m just looking for realness,” he replies.
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“Dez I tell you, this opportunity sitting before you, to me, is kind of unique. In a sense that we’re in a time where we’re about to [improve and become a good team] ... The last two years have been hell. I’ll be the first to tell you that. But it’s gonna take guys like you who love to compete. Who love to go in these big stadiums and say ‘We’re here. And we’re coming here to kick your ass,’ and those are the kind of guys we’re looking for.
“The owners, they’ve given these football players anything and everything. We haven’t given them back winning. You know, and that’s the thing that’s gotta turn. And in order to deliver, I’m gonna need guys like you,” Jackson said.
Bryant remarked that he feels comfortable with Jackson for being honest and up-front with him, referring to “that realness” multiple times.
“I love learning, I want to know things, if there’s something I’m not doing right, I want to know those things,” Bryant said.
“This will be the greatest turnaround in sports history,” Jackson said.
Then the narrator came over and said “The Browns may sign Dez Bryant ... but not today.”
At the end of the episode, while previewing next week’s, the narrator says “... and how will Josh Gordon’s return affect the decision of whether to sign Dez Bryant?”
Bryant, 29, has been a free agent since the Cowboys released him on April 13 after eight seasons with the team. He was a first-round pick back in 2010, by the Cowboys. For his career, he has 531 receptions for 7,459 yards and 73 touchdowns.
Other than his play on the field, Bryant has had the occasional off-the-field incident and injuries have forced him to miss significant time, but the oddest thing about him is that he remains unsigned. His production speaks for itself, though Bryant has been in a Twitter beef with the Cowboys since his release, and has taken some of the blame for the team’s poor showing in 2017.
His courtship with the Browns has also been a weird one, with both sides interested in a deal up until the Browns traded Corey Coleman to the Buffalo Bills and wide receiver Antonio Callaway was cited for marijuana possession. Then, Browns general manager John Dorsey said that Bryant “won’t return any phone calls.”
Eventually, Bryant and the Browns got back into contact and set up a meeting, the one featured on Hard Knocks. While the Browns maintain that no deal with Bryant is forthcoming, at least for now, they also say the recent return of Josh Gordon has nothing to do with that decision.
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