Cowboys sign Martavis Bryant: WR ‘thankful for opportunity,’ sees similarities between Big Ben and Dak

FRISCO, Texas —  Martavis Bryant’s NFL comeback will occur with the Dallas Cowboys. The veteran huge receiver, lately reinstated via the NFL, labored out with the group on Tuesday and formally signed with Dallas’ apply squad on Wednesday after Bryant have been out of the league since 2019.

“It feels great,” Bryant stated Wednesday. “So thankful for the opportunity. It’s been a long process for me, but I stayed the course. I didn’t give up on myself. I’m very grateful and happy to be here. It’s [being back in an NFL team facility] been everything, It’s been a long process. I went through a lot over these last years that I haven’t been playing football, getting down on myself. Wanting to give up on football, but at the end of the day, I had to look myself in the mirror, face my own demons and get myself together.”

Bryant was once officially reinstated via commissioner Roger Goodell on Saturday, and he has made fast paintings in getting again on an NFL roster. Cowboys COO and EVP Stephen Jones showed the exercise on Monday all the way through a radio spot with 105.3FM The Fan.

“He’s [Bryant] a guy that’s a big, strong, fast receiver that we’ll certainly take a look at,” Stephen Jones stated Monday, via The Athletic. 

The 31-year-old entered the league as a promising huge receiver prospect out of Clemson. He was once decided on via the Pittsburgh Steelers within the fourth spherical of the 2014 NFL Draft and spent 4 seasons with the franchise. He stuck 8 touchdowns as a rookie in simply 10 video games and then posted 765 receiving yards in 11 video games performed all the way through his 2nd 12 months within the league. 

While flashing from time to time, Bryant had run-ins with the league place of work for violating the NFL’s substance abuse coverage. He was once suspended for the primary 4 video games of the 2015 season for violating the coverage once more. Then, in March of 2016, the NFL introduced he was once suspended for all the season for every other violation. Bryant was once conditionally reinstated via the league in 2017, which might in the end be his final season in Pittsburgh. 

He was once then traded to the then-Oakland Raiders within the spring of 2018, however he confronted the opportunity of a year-long suspension via the NFL for but every other violation. Bryant ended up taking part in 8 video games for the Raiders earlier than the league got here down with an indefinite  suspension for violating the phrases of his conditional reinstatement. 

“I just had a process that I had to follow, steps that I had to do,” Bryant stated of his reinstatement procedure. “Maintaining my sobriety, meeting with my counselor and doing the things that I was supposed to do to show them that I changed. I put the work in, I’m very proud.”

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Since that banishment via the NFL, Bryant has nonetheless been at the soccer scene, making stops within the Indoor Football League and maximum lately, joined the XFL as a member of the Vegas Vipers. His IFL stint motivated him extra to get again to the NFL after having a collision with the wall at the back of the tip zone.

“It was different for me,” Bryant stated of his Indoor Football League revel in. “I ran into the wall so I had to give it up. I was like ‘I can’t do it.'”

Bryant’s alternative to determine with the Cowboys was once a procedure six months within the making. 

“First off, it started with the NFL,” he stated. “I had to go through like six months of testing, meeting with counselors and doing a lot of things that they asked me to do. Then, my agent reached out to all the teams and let them know that I was going to be reinstated soon. Dallas was interested.”

Three-time First-Team All-Pro and present Tennessee Titans huge receiver DeAndre Hopkins, a faculty teammate of Bryant’s at Clemson, has been one of the most greatest components in Bryant’s go back to soccer. 

“DeAndre Hopkins was a big part of me getting back into this,” Bryant stated. “He hit me up, and I went out to Arizona [where Hopkins played for the Cardinals from 2020-2022] and started training with him. He has been with me through this whole process.” 

It’s unclear how a lot Bryant nonetheless has left within the tank and his prior résumé does appear to be crowd pleasing sufficient for a group just like the Cowboys to no less than see if he is value greater than a convention squad spot.

“The sky’s the limit for me, man,” Bryant stated. “I know I’m 31, but still fast, still big [6-foot-4, 211 pounds], still want to play football. I haven’t lost anything. [It’s] more of a prove-it-point to me. I’ve got a lot of doubters out there. It’s more of me proving to myself that I still got it.”

Now that he has made it again to the league and starts to apply with the Cowboys, his speedy function is to move from being any person in a high-level athletic form to soccer form. Bryant stated he have been working 22 to 23 miles in line with hour sprints in exercises. For context, Miami Dolphins All-Pro huge receiver Tyreek Hall has hit the quickest ball-carrier velocity in 2023, clocking a 22.01 miles in line with hour velocity. 

“I’ve got to get in football shape,” he stated. ‘I’m in form however I’ve were given to get in soccer form. Football form is other. … I simply need to get my wind again below me.”

 At the moment, CeeDee Lamb, Michael Gallup, Brandin Cooks, KaVontae Turpin, Jalen Tolbert and Jalen Brooks make up Dallas’ wide receiver room on the 53-man roster. Bryant already has a rapport with Cooks, who was also a part of the 2014 NFL Draft class. Bryant’s role could be similar to that from his Steelers days, the deep-ball and red zone threat that led the Cowboys to believe he had something left in the tank. In head coach Mike McCarthy’s eyes, “the whole thing is to be decided” regard Bryant’s possible position in his offense. 

“Explosive player, I love to go down and catch deep balls,” Bryant stated when describing his sport. “Anything that you need me to do, I’m going to go do it.”

As a rookie, Bryant hauled in passes from a most probably long run Hall of Famer in Ben Roethlisberger, who ranks within the best 10 all time in passing yards (64,088 passing yards, fifth-most in NFL historical past) and passing touchdowns (418, eighth-most in NFL historical past). He sees some similarities between Big Ben and Cowboys two-time Pro Bowler Dak Prescott, who he is also catching passes from within the common season in about a couple of weeks if he displays he nonetheless has the juice at the apply box. 

“Great quarterback, determined and wants to win,” Bryant stated. “I don’t see any difference between him and Ben honestly. He’s determined to be great, and I’m here to help.”