Jaguars Have Best Odds to Sign Dez Bryant After Marqise Lee Injury

• Dez Bryant still hasn’t signed anywhere for the 2018 NFL season.
• The injury-bitten Jacksonville Jaguars are the new favorites to sign the former Cowboy.
• Will Dez sign in Jacksonville, or will he take the year off and fight Jake Paul? Seriously. Sort of.

The main goal of the preseason these days is not to win games, it’s not even to learn the playbook; it’s to arrive at the other end healthy.

The Jacksonville Jaguars lost that battle in Week 3 when no. 1 receiver Marqise Lee suffered a season-ending knee injury.

Marqise Lee is out for the season – what does it mean for the #Jaguars in 2018? @UCF_Jaguar takes a look:https://t.co/6fwbSbYdaw pic.twitter.com/np5r03npDP

— Generation Jaguar (@generationjag) August 29, 2018

In the wake of that news, the Jaguars became the new favorites to land still-unsigned free agent Dez Bryant, jumping ahead of the Browns.

Dez Bryant vs Healthy Jaguars Receivers

It wasn’t that long ago that the Jaguars had two productive Allens in their receiving corps (Robinson and Hurns). Now they have none, and when it comes to experience, there’s little behind Lee on the depth chart.

In addition to rookie DJ Chark, Jacksonville’s WR group currently features: Donte Moncrief, Keelan Cole, Dede Westbrook, and Jaydon Mickens.

Here’s how those four stack up combined against Dez.

Are the Jaguars a Good Bet to Sign Dez Bryant?

As accomplished as Bryant is, he is a shadow of the player he used to be. Last year, he totaled just 838 yards on 69 catches despite playing a full 16 games. He also recorded a lowly six touchdowns, which is half as many as his next lowest total in a 16 game season (12 in 2012).

He no longer has the speed to gain separation nor the explosion to physically dominate in the red zone. He would bring the Jaguars a decent floor, but the ceiling is much higher for their younger wideouts, in particular Chark, their 2018 second-round pick, and Westbrook, who averaged nearly four catches per game and 12.6 YPC in his truncated rookie season.

The team has not “closed the door” on signing Dez, but they are understandably not enamoured with the soon-to-be 30-year-old.

The USA Today reported that, “[Jacksonville head coach Doug] Marrone said the team was ‘very confident’ with its current crop of pass catchers, though he did not rule out the idea when asked whether he would consider signing a free agent, including former Dallas Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant.”

With the recent spate of cuts in New England’s receiving corps (Kenny Britt, Jordan Matthews), taking a flyer on the Patriots at twice the return is a better option. Bill Belichick has not shied away from older, outspoken receivers in the past: see Chad Ochocinco/Johnson.

Dez Bryant’s Future Boxing Career vs Jake Paul??

If Dez doesn’t play football in 2018 — which is a real possibility — he might end up using his bulging biceps to beat down YouTube celebrity Jake Paul.

“Sorry, what?”

Let me explain.

When Dez tried to text Logan Paul (Jake’s brother) to congratulate Logan on his recent white-collar boxing match with KSI, he accidentally sent the message to Jake.

Instead of ignoring the message or treating it as the harmless misstep that it was, Jake decided to throw shade.

Dez Bryant don’t want the smoke? & no team wants Dez Bryant!! GO BROWNS!! pic.twitter.com/4hmhwiE6PB

— Jake Paul (@jakepaul) August 26, 2018

Dez didn’t take kindly to that and generously offered to step in the ring with Jake, an amateur pugilist himself.

Idk why the dude got salty…I thought I was following is brother to tell him congratulations on the fight and I realized it it wasn’t him … I guess he called himself trying to clown..we can get in the boxing ring tho if he want smoke ? ? https://t.co/N910Li54Td

— Dez Bryant (@DezBryant) August 28, 2018

While fighting Dez Bryant would put a bunch of green in Jake Paul’s pockets, it would also leave his face every shade of black and blue.

If I know sportsbooks, there’s a decent chance a Dez Bryant vs Jake Paul wager pops up in the next week or so. After careful analysis of their respective boxing credentials, here’s how SportsBettingDime.com would set the moneyline.

Even though Jake Paul is 1-0 in his amateur boxing career, he’s coming into this (very hypothetical) matchup a massive underdog.

Beating up KSI’s little brother (Deji) is one thing. Fighting the 6’2, 222-pound specimen that is Dez Bryant is quite another. And even Deji, who spends most of his life playing video games, made Jake suffer …

Jake Paul may have won but deji made him look like this, so who’s the real winner? #KSIvsLogan pic.twitter.com/t6xeQm0hNZ

— courtney ? (@lokisjades) August 25, 2018