Street Looking to Capitalize on Golden Opportunity

This week, Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett said that Dez Bryant’s absence from OTAs isn’t without its benefits, particularly for the receivers behind Bryant on the depth chart. Like Devin Street, for one.

Street was selected in the fifth round of the 2014 Draft out of Pitt and was active all year, but he finished his rookie season with all of two catches and 18 yards. Both of those catches and all of those yards came in Week One.

“I think he is excited about this opportunity he’s getting with Dez not here,” said wide receivers coach Derek Dooley, per the Dallas Morning News. “He is a very mature player. He is smart. He understands, but he also wants to be in there like all receivers do.

“One of the biggest things he needed to improve upon was his play strength, and he’s gotten a lot better in that area. I think he has improved as much as anybody and he still has got a lot of room for improvement ahead of him. He’s doing great five practices in and he needs to stay on that path.”

Despite the paltry numbers, Garrett was pleased with Street’s rookie season.

“Devin did a really good job,” Garrett said. “He played a lot of different spots for us, didn’t have a lot of production for us. But he was up virtually every week and was able to handle all of the different spots--both outside positions and inside positions, and go into games and handle his work well. Again, not a lot of opportunities but he was doing the right things. I do think he has grown physically over the last year. He’s stronger, he’s quicker, he’s faster. Those are all measurable things we have seen in our strength and conditioning program. And that stuff is starting to show up on the field.”