It took Dez Bryant a while to finally live up to his potential, but once the young receiver did he immediately became one of the most feared wide receivers in the National Football League.
Including a ridiculous nine reception', 224-yard and two touchdown performance against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, Bryant has now caught 43 passes for 721 yards and nine touchdowns in his last six games. This ranks him ahead of Calvin Johnson and Brandon Marshall during that span. In fact, those are the only two receivers ahead of Bryant in fantasy points this season.
This has to be surprising considering just how bad Bryant was earlier in the season. He dropped way too many passes, ran the wrong routes multiple times and just seemed to be regressing a great deal in the Dallas Cowboys offense.
Not so much anymore.
We already knew that Bryant had the most raw talent of any young wide receiver in the NFL. He can beat defenders off the line in press coverage, dominate them in space down the field and give Romo a huge target with multiple defenders on him. He possesses the attitude and swagger that some of the best receivers in the NFL have had in the past, which is another defining characteristic of his game.
I don't see Bryant taking a step back. While the fantasy football season is over for most of us, some still have championships to play in Week 17. If you are going up against Bryant, watch out. He should be able to torch what has been a pretty bad Washington Redskins pass defense. Do you like DeAngelo Hall in this matchup? I sure the heck don't.
As some of you know, I projected Bryant to have a huge game this week against New Orleans. I am going to do the same in my upcoming wide receiver article this week, but will leave that up to the imagination for now.
What I will say is that Bryant promises to be a top tier WR1 option in 2013 and moving forward. It seems that he has gotten past that immaturity on the field and will now have to go into the offseason and start to act like a man in his personal life. Barring any setbacks we will be talking about Bryant in the same light (in terms of fantasy production) as Calvin Johnson, Roddy White and A.J. Green.
This couldn't have been said just seven short weeks ago.