Cowboys News Digest, July 20 Edition: Does Dez Bryant have what it takes to succeed in the NFL?

Dez BryantWide receiver Dez Bryant (23) faces a Class A misdemeanor family violence charge after he was accused of assaulting his mother (37). I got nothin’ but Dr. Phil’s saying, “Every pancake has two sides.”

Bryant turned himself in to the DeSoto, Texas police in answer to a warrant. The Cowboys said Bryant had been having an ideal offseason in the lead-up to training camp. He has no prior arrests.

Jerry Jones has said that players with troubled backgrounds could be productive if they had a support structure for personal guidance. The Cowboys set out to build that structure, often tapping Michael Irvin, Emmett Smith and Deion Sanders as mentors. Dallas took a gamble with Adam Jones before releasing him in 2009. They are unlikely to dump the physically talented Bryant whose troubled upbringing leaves him poorly equipped for the pressures of the NFL.

Dallas is on the lookout for a veteran training camp casualty who might step in as a No. 3 receiver to replace Laurent Robinson. Concern for Bryant’s availability might heighten that quest.

Jones has said that Terrell Owens had what it takes to make an NFL roster somewhere. Could he? Would he? Not sure, but Braylon Edwards and Plaxico Burress are out there. Just sayin’.

The Cowboys allowed the July 16 deadline pass without offering LB Anthony Spencer a contract extension. They had no real intention to do so.  It seems they expected more from the 2007 first-rounder than 21.5 sacks over the past five seasons.

Spencer will play for the $8.8 million franchise tender. To get more from Dallas or another team in 2013, he had better boost his sack total up to the 10-12 range now.

Forbes Magazine ranked the Cowboys the NFL’s most valuable franchise at $1.85 billion, a figure that ties them at third-place with the New York Yankees as the world’s most valuable sports enterprise. Futbol team Manchester United tops the worldwide list at $2.2 billion.

The stat masters at Football Outsiders ranked the Dallas Cowboys in the league’s lower half for talent under age 25. FO liked RT Tyron Smith (“a building block for years to come”), and saw C/G Phil Costa as a player with potential. The Cowboys rated first-round pick Morris Claiborne the best cornerback of any Draft since Deion Sanders, but FO says Dallas has too many holes to dig out of to rate any higher this season. ESPN Dallas ran a summary of the report from ESPN Insider.

About Anthony Brown

Lifelong Redskins fan and blogger about football and life since 2004. Joined MVN's Hog Heaven blog in 2005 and then moved Redskins Hog Heaven to Bolguin Network. Believes that the course of a season is pre-ordained by management decisions made during the offseason. Can occasionally be found on the This Given Sunday blog and he does guest posts.

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