Dez Bryant blames Cowboys 'garbage ass play calling' for struggles, calls out former teammates, coaches in Twitter rant

Dallas Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones went on Sirius XM NFL Radio on Friday to talk about how third-year quarterback Dak Prescott has progressed this offseason.

Last year, Stephen said, there was a lot of pressure on Prescott with two of the teams’ top targets — Dez Bryant and Jason Witten — in his ear constantly, which caused Prescott to struggle more than he did in his rookie campaign.

“[Dak Prescott] is working on his game. He’s working on his accuracy,” Stephen said on Sirius XM NFL radio. “I think he’s gotta trust the system, which I think at times last year there was pressure with Dez [Bryant] in his ear — to some degree with Jason [Witten] in his ear, those great players want balls.

“I think if he can get back to what we did the year before where we run the football consistently with [Ezekiel Elliott] and that great offensive line that we have, and let him really trust the system, work through his reads … then I think he’ll have the type of year that he had before if not better.”

However, an initial tweet from Sirius XM NFL Radio that didn’t include audio from the interview misquoted Stephen, making it seem as if he was calling out Bryant specifically for Prescott’s struggles.

Bryant, unsurprisingly after seeing the initial tweet, didn’t take too kindly to what he thought Stephen said — and told him so on Twitter.

“Here we go again with that scapegoat s—,” Bryant tweeted. “I charged everything to the game and went the other way. Y’all know what the real problem is. Don’t put it on me with that bulls—. Garbage a– play calling. Everybody lined up in the same spots for 17 weeks.”

Bryant then started interacting with others who were replying to him, too. Pretty quickly after the initial tweet, he decided to take a shot at Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, linebacker Sean Lee and center Travis Frederick.

“[Stephen’s] not clueless,” Bryant wrote, quote-tweeting another user. “Jerry [Jones] was the only one who was clueless. S— was planned to get me out ask Travis [Frederick] and my brother Snake Lee, I mean Sean Lee.”

The part where Bryant called Lee a snake surprised a lot of users, as the 32-year-old linebacker is generally thought to be one of the biggest leaders on the team.

Bryant explained that part shortly after, too.

“Yeah [Lee] suppose to been my brother,” Bryant tweeted. “We laughed, talked about goals and stuff, he sat right across from me in the locker room. Never thought we had a problem. I got cut. He was the first to know. I find out he was also behind it. Damn!”

And while he didn’t explain why or how Lee was “behind” his release from the team, Bryant did repeatedly say he was just stating facts.

Bryant was released from the Cowboys in April after eight seasons.

Sean Lee, Stephen Jones respond to Dez Bryant

Stephen was asked at Dallas’ training camp in Southern California on Friday to clarify his comments from his Sirius XM radio interview, which were misconstrued in the initial tweet that set Bryant off.

“You got great players like Dez and Witten, they want the ball, everybody sees it,” Stephen told Todd Archer of ESPN. “It’s on every team. The great players, the great receivers, the guys who catch the ball, they want the ball. They let the quarterback know that sometimes.

“I was a quarterback, so [I] understand that. It certainly in no way was it intended to be negative.”

Lee was asked about his relationship with Bryant on Friday night, too, and said that Bryant’s claim that he had something to do with getting him released was “absurd.”

“First thing to say that I can get anybody off the team and have any input on the roster is absurd,” Lee told ESPN. “Second thing, I love Dez, and I want the best for him. To be honest, we did butt heads, because I wanted Dez to be more accountable to this team and his teammates. And to be honest with you, a lot of the team felt that way.

“I think he needs to look at himself and hold himself accountable.”

Cleveland Browns reach out to Dez Bryant

According to Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com, the Cleveland Browns have reached out to Bryant’s representatives on Friday about him signing a one-year deal with the team this season.

The talks, though, were preliminary and would need to progress significantly before any deal is officially made.

The length of that deal with the Browns is likely one of the most appealing parts to Bryant, who turned down a reported three-year deal with the Ravens earlier this offseason as he just wants a single year deal so he can be a free agent again next offseason.

The three-time Pro Bowl receiver caught just more than 52 percent of balls thrown his way for the Cowboys last season and scored six touchdowns.

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