Dez Bryant will not be playing in Baltimore next season. According to a report from ESPN.com's Adam Schefter, the Ravens are out of the mix on Dez now that they have signed former Saints wide receiver Willie Snead.
Now that Baltimore is acquiring former Saints’ WR Willie Snead, Ravens are out on Dez Bryant. They showed some initial interest.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 23, 2018
The Ravens signed Snead to an offer sheet last week, and it was reported over the weekend that the Saints were not planning to match. On Monday, that became official as the Saints informed Snead they were letting him sign with Baltimore. (And then either the Saints, Ravens, or Snead's agent told every reporter imaginable at the exact same time.)
Saints are not going to match Willie Snead’s offer sheet with Baltimore, per source. Snead will be a Raven.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 23, 2018
Per source Saints have told WR Willie Snead that they won't match his offer sheet from the Ravens.
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) April 23, 2018
The #Saints won’t match the offer sheet for RFA WR Willie Snead, source said. He’s officially a member of the #Ravens.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) April 23, 2018
At this point, there seem to be more players who are interested in having Dez join their team than organizations that want to sign him. Dez has been working out with the Giants' Odell Beckham Jr., Tyrann Mathieu is recruiting him to Houston, Jamal Adams wants him with the Jets, and several Eagles would like to see him in Philly. But several reports indicate none of the NFC East teams are interested and now the Ravens, supposedly one of the main suitors, are also out.
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Dez still has the ability to win on contested catches, especially in the red zone, but over the last few years he has struggled to create separation. The best thing for him would be to wind up on a team with a quarterback that "throws his receivers open," like the Packers or Saints with Aaron Rodgers or Drew Brees, for example. It's not known if either of those teams is interested, though the Packers were bandied about as a potential destination last week.
Either way, things are going pretty slowly for Dez and it looks like this situation is probably going to have to resolve itself after the draft. Dez probably wants to find a home before that because teams that draft a receiver early on might exit the market for his services, but if a team can get a younger, cheaper player with more years of team control, it would probably prefer to do so. This scenario we have playing out right now is why the Cowboys releasing Bryant so late in the offseason was so bad for his market potential.
