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Dallas Cowboys: Dez Bryant shouldn’t return punts in 2015

By Stephen Forsha

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Maybe Dallas Cowboys Vice President Stephen Jones was just bored or wanted to see if his father (and Cowboys owner) Jerry Jones reads the internet, but the vice president said this week star wide Dez Bryant could return punts in 2015.

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Are the Cowboys out of their mind? Having Bryant return punts (and increasing his risk of injury) makes no sense at all.

Sure, Bryant is a great athlete and can easily return punts in the NFL, but why risk the chance of injuring the best wide receiver and possibly the best player on the team to return punts?

The risk isn’t worth the reward.

With the offense the Cowboys have, they should gain any yards they could have on a punt with the firepower they have with their offensive line keeping defenders at bay, and allowing Bryant to do what he does best … and returning punts shouldn’t be on any list when it comes to No. 88.

Sean Wagner-McGouh of CBS Sports wrote this earlier in the week about the Bryant punt return situation:

"“Then we have a guy in Dez Bryant who had quite a career returning punts at Oklahoma State. When we need a big play, with him maturing as a player, it wouldn’t be out of the question to see him in some key situations when we need him back there.”"

Even in “key situations,” I’m still not big on Bryant being back in a situation where he has more risk to injury than what he needs to have. Plus who in their right mind puts their top wide receiver in a punt return situation, especially a team that was two wins away from playing in the Super Bowl last season?

It doesn’t make a heck of a lot of sense.

Bryant last returned a punt in 2012 – 12 punt returns, in fact – with his best return being 44 yards, though he averaged just 5.5 yards per return. Jones spoke about Bryant returning punts in college … well, that was in 2009, and I’m guessing that he’s not that type of player anymore since he’s had the wear and tear of an NFL career for the past five seasons.

In his career, Bryant is averaging 9.1 yards per punt return with two touchdowns coming his rookie season of 2010.

None of this is about not wanting Bryant to succeed to his fullest abilities, but it is more about the Cowboys being reckless with a player who if they don’t have catching passes from Tony Romo this fall and winter, they won’t be playing in the playoffs.

If that scenario were to happen because of a fluke injury on a punt return, well, it would be a nightmare in “Big D” and it would be a pointless way to see this run of the Cowboys have a season wasted on something that could have been avoided.

Next: Cowboys: Is Knowshon Moreno worth a shot?

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