New Orleans Saints: Dez Bryant signing ends sourly premature

The New Orleans Saints and Dez Bryant agreed to a one-year contract, but before he suited up for even one game, their plans for the wideout came to a halt.

At the midway point of the season, the New Orleans Saints chose to enhance their roster by signing veteran wide receiver Dez Bryant to a one-year contract — or, in this case, a half-year contract. Football hadn’t been the same since Bryant was released as a free agent by the Dallas Cowboys back in April.

Unfortunately, any plans that Sean Payton and the Saints had for Bryant were brought to a screeching halt before he played a single game. In practice on Friday, the veteran wideout was running routes when he went down with a non-contact injury. According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the fear is that he tore his Achilles, which would end his extremely young season.

Other teams had offered Bryant various one-year contracts, dubbed as “prove it” deals, which the 30-year old receiver declined. Dez remained quiet for most of the season amidst this, aside from his visit with the Cleveland Browns that was featured on HBO’s Hard Knocks.

Byrant coming to New Orleans appeared to be a win-win for both sides. The Saints already have an abundance of weapons on offense, from the boom-and-zoom combo of Mark Ingram and Alvin Kamara to heavily targetted Michael Thomas.

The only window of weakness the Saints offense has shown is lacking a good complement to Thomas on the other side of the field. Bryant, however, would seemingly answer that Defenses have already struggled against Drew Brees and his passing game. Adding Bryant to the mix could’ve taken things to a new level.

Bryant remaining patient this season to find a team seemed to be a brilliant strategy. He waited until he found a Super Bowl contender that could use his experience, and the Saints fit the bill perfectly. Teams such as the Los Angeles Rams or the Kansas City Chiefs, however, simply didn’t have cap room to sign him.

Throwing Dez opposite Thomas in the offense and the Saints getting a big-bodied red zone threat seemed to put them on an even higher notch heading into the home-strech of the regular season. Bryant may not have been able to help salvage the brand of the Dallas star, but the belief was he could certainly provide big support on obtaining another Lombardi Trophy for the Saints.

Sadly, we won’t be able to see if that would’ve been the case given this injury.