Dez Bryant waited to sign until he thought he had found the right fit for him. If you remember he turned down an offer earlier this season from the Baltimore Ravens and while I don’t know if they ever made an official offer to Bryant the Cleveland Browns where interested in signing him. It appeared as Bryant found a good landing spot for a wide receiver when he signed a 1-year $1.250 million dollar deal with the New Orleans Saints.
Bryant was official signed on November 7th and his first practice was this past Thursday. Then on the final play of practice on Friday just his second official practice Bryant was injured. Now the injury isn’t officially confirmed, but everyone is reporting that Bryant tore his Achilles. There hasn’t been any type of announcement from the Saints as they’re waiting for the results of an MRI, but that was called “a formality” as team doctors already believe it’s a torn Achilles.
If this diagnosis is correct this type of an injury would keep Bryant out approximately 8 months. That would make him healthy for training camp, but he would also be a free agent again.
There was talk that the Saints where willing to give Bryant a 2-year deal, but he wanted to sign for just the remainder of this season as a way to prove that he was still a top flight receiver in the NFL. He was hoping to use the final seven games of the Saints season to do that. I know that the Saints have eight games left this season, but Bryant wasn’t going to play this week against the Cincinnati Bengals since he had only been with the Saints for two practices.
Bryant was a three-time Pro Bowler for the Dallas Cowboys before they released him in April of this year. Bryant was due to make $12.5 million dollar with the Cowboys this season.
In 8 seasons with the Cowboys Bryant caught 531 passes for 7459 yards; averaging 14 yards per reception. For three straight seasons 2012-2014 Bryant had at least 1200 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns. Bryant led the NFL in receiving touchdowns with 16 in 2014.
After an injury limited him to just 9 games and 31 receptions in 2015 there was talk that Bryant may no longer be a top receiving threat. He did bounce back with a Pro Bowl season in 2016, but it still wasn’t the season people where looking for out of Bryant. He had 50 catches for 796 yards and 8 touchdowns. Bryant did have better numbers in 2016 with 69 catches and 838 yards with 6 touchdowns, but he averaged the lowest yards per catch number of his career at 12.1.
Will we see Bryant in an NFL training camp next season?
The Bryant injury still leaves the Saints short at receiver; so what can they do? Remember Bryant wasn’t the only receiver they worked out. The Saints also had Kamar Aiken and Brandon Marshall in for workouts.
Aiken played in 5 games with the Philadelphia Eagles this season where he caught 6 passes for 53 yards.
Marshall played in 6 games for the Seattle Seahawks where he caught 11 passes for 136 yards and 1 touchdown.
It is possible that the Saints could bring one of these veteran receivers back and there where reports that Marshall “impressed” in his workout. New Orleans also has a wide receiver on their practice squad. Undrafted rookie Keith Kirkwood could possible be added to the roster for Sunday’s game just to add some depth at that position.
The Saints ended up needing some depth at wide receiver when Cameron Meredith joined Ted Ginn Jr. on inured reserve this week. Meredith is recovering from arthroscopic left knee surgery while Ginn had been in the injured reserve since Week 5 also with a knee injury. If he’s healthy Ginn can return Week 15 against the Carolina Panthers, but it’s unclear right now if he’ll be able to return.
Even with all of the losses at the wide receiver position the Saints are still very talented. They’ll head into Cincinnati for Sundays game with Michael Thomas and Tre’Quan Smith as their starters at wide receiver. They’ll get contributions from Benjamin Watson and Josh Hill at the tight end position and of course don’t forget that Alvin Kamara can catch the football out of the backfield. Who knows maybe this is the week that Taysom Hill lines up at wide receiver.
With all the talk being centered on where Bryce Harper will be playing next season I’m wondering how many people noticed the report that Joe Mauer will officially announce his retirement from baseball.
Mauer has taken out a full page newspaper ad and wrote a letter to Minnesota Twins fans announcing his decision.
The Twins handled what turned out to be Mauer’s last game perfectly. Mauer started at 1st base. He took the field alone and was greeted by his two daughters at 1st base. Then it what turned out now to be his final at bat Mauer sliced a doubled to left centerfield in the signature way he had for 15 seasons with the Twins. Then for the first time in five years Mauer put his catching gear on. He caught one pitch from Twins reliever Matt Belisle before exiting the game to a standing ovation from the Twins fans.
With Mauer’s retirement the talk will turn to will he be elected to the Hall of Fame. It’s an interesting case and it looks as though he has a good chance to go to Cooperstown.
Mauer was a catcher for the first 10 years of his career, but was forced to move out from behind the plate after battling concussion issues. As a catcher Mauer won the MVP in 2009. He also won 3 batting titles, 3 Gold Gloves and was named to the All-Star team 6 times. I know the sabermetric people are jumping up and down right now screaming that batting average doesn’t mean anything. First off you’re stupid so shut up, but Mauer also led the league in On Base Percentage 2 times as well as Slugging Percentage and On Base plus Slugging Percentage once each.
Mauer played in 1858 career games. He had 2123 hits in his career. Mauer was never a big time power hitter as he hit 10 homers or more just six times in his career with 28 being his career high in 2009, but he has a career batting average of .306.
Mauer’s Hall of Fame candidacy may hinge n who’s voting at the time his name hits the ballot. If there are enough older writers still casting votes he should have a good chance to find his way in, but since he’s not a sabermetric darling if there’s enough new voters who believe in those stats he might run into trouble.
Take some time to look at Mauer’s numbers and tell me if you think he belongs in the Hall of Fame. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mauerjo01.shtml
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