Forget the workout – the Washington Commanders have straight up signed wide receiver Martavis Bryant, who will be in camp Tuesday.
To make room on the preseason roster, the team cut kicker Ramiz Ahmed.
"Adding another receiver just into the mix, we thought was the right thing to go, right here in camp," head coach Dan Quinn said of the signing. "Martavis has a really cool skill set. He's got size and length and the ability to use him in the red zone, so when you see him today, he'll stand out. He looks like a linebacker playing wideout from a size standpoint."
Now 32, Bryant was released by Dallas earlier this offseason after spending last year on the Cowboys’ practice squad. He has not played in the NFL since 2018, when he had 19 catches for 266 yards in eight games with the Raiders.
Bryant was a fourth-round pick of the Steelers in 2014 and had 26 catches as a rookie, but his career has been more about suspensions than receptions. He served a four-game suspension for violating the league’s substance abuse policy, then missed all of 2016 after a second violation and was suspended for the 2019 season after violating the terms of his previous conditional reinstatement.
Since that 2018 stint with the Raiders, he has played in the Indoor Football League, Fan Controlled Football League, Canadian Football League, and XFL, and then, after finally being reinstated by the NFL, spent last year in Dallas – where Quinn, then the defensive coordinator, got a good, long look at him.
"He's in really good shape," Quinn said. "And he's really hungry to prove it."
What Bryant gives the Commanders is a big target – at 6-foot-4, he is the tallest receiver on the camp roster alongside Brycen Tremaine – who has experience as a deep threat in an offense that is trying to put together its depth chart behind WR1 Terry McLaurin.