Cowboys Release Dez Bryant After Eight Years, WR Says It Wasn’t His Decision

Dez Bryant’s time with the Dallas Cowboys is over after eight years, although it reportedly wasn’t the wide receiver’s decision.

Dez Bryant Cut By Cowboys

The team released the 29-year-old veteran — a first-round pick in 2010 — on Friday.

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The Cowboys still reportedly owed Bryant $12.5 million this year. The team has a $16.5 million salary cap hit, and the receiver publicly said several times in recent weeks that he would not accept a pay cut. According to ESPN, Dallas will save $8 million by cutting Bryant.

“As an organization we hold Dez Bryant in the highest regard, and we are grateful for his passion, spirit and contributions to this team for the past eight years,” team owner Jerry Jones said in a statement released by the Cowboys. “He will always be a valued member of our family.”

“Dez and I share a personal and professional relationship that is very strong, and he is one of just a handful of players with whom I have become that close to over the past 30 years. This was not an easy decision. It was made based upon doing what we believe is in the best interest of the Dallas Cowboys.”

Though Bryant was an asset to the Cowboys, Dallas has reportedly been upset with his performance over the last few years.

“Cowboys coaches started seeing Bryant’s overwhelming physical gifts start to slip all the way back in 2015, the injury-plagued first season of his five-year, $70 million second contract,” Albert Breer of the MMQB recently wrote. “And that hasn’t reversed itself. Three years later, at the point in his career when some players reinvent themselves by becoming craftier, Bryant’s struggle to adjust to playing at a different speed has disappointed the team.”

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Bryant hasn’t logged more than 900 yards since he signed his aforementioned high-paying extension in 2015. The receiver said in a tweet Friday afternoon that it wasn’t his choice to part ways with the Cowboys.

Dallas recently added wideouts Deonte Thompson and Allen Hurns in free agency. Cole Beasley, Terrance Williams and Ryan Switzer are also still on the Cowboys’ roster.