Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones knew exactly what he was getting when he selected receiver Dez Bryant out of Oklahoma State in the first round of the 2010 NFL Draft. At least that’s what he told ESPN Radio 103.3 in an interview on Thursday when asked about the development of Bryant, who enters his second season slated as a starter, after Roy Williams was cut loose.
"Dez is a product of some of the things he does that's been going on all his life. He's had challenges and they are not one bit different," Jones said, per the Dallas Morning News. "There has not been one surprise in anything that we thought we were getting with Dez Bryant when we drafted him. Not one have we had. That's why he dropped down to us because he had certain challenges relatively, frankly, habits, coming to meetings on time, those kinds of things.”
According to those close to the Cowboys, Bryant has seemingly matured after a rookie season that saw a handful of emotional outbursts from the young receiver, and an offseason in which, for a time anyway, Bryant’s off-the-field issues came to the forefront of local sports media. Moving forward, Jones is confident in his and Jason Garrett’s ability, to rein in Bryant’s highly emotional manner of playing in order to focus on the team.
"What I'm proud to say is he's a good a young man as you'll run into, he works as hard as he can works, he's genuine, his teammates and the people he works with who work around him,” Jones said. “But as time moves along here, do you have to continue to really work to have him be a part of the team concept, certainly you do. That creates some problems for the coaches. Good news is Jason can handle that. I can handle that."
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