It's been a long journey for Washington Commanders wide receiver Martavis Bryant.
Six years after last playing on an NFL field, Bryant scored a touchdown late in the fourth quarter in the Commanders' 20-10 win against the New England Patriots on Sunday night at Commanders Field. Bryant was a late addition in training camp, but his hard work over the past few weeks paid off on Sunday.
"It's not easy to get jumped down and put in the middle of an offense or a defense and learning it," coach Dan Quinn said. "So for him to come in and spend the time with [Wide Receivers Coach] Bobby Engram who, if you were somebody to come learn from, he's the one you'd wanna pick. And so I was just really proud of him at the end. There was a [pass interference] that went his way, a touchdown at the end, so I was very excited for him."
Coach Quinn hopes that Bryant's journey can serve as an inspiration to some of the other Commanders in the locker room.
"I think as a ball player and a teammate you really have appreciation for somebody's journey," Quinn said. "Maybe even if you might not have been a part of that. But you recognize it when things don't always go the way you'd hoped it would. So, for someone like him to stay with it, that shows a lot of grit where it would've been real easy just to walk away and not be able to do it. I had a chance to coach him some last year and I was impressed. I didn't forget. So, would he make the most of that opportunity? I felt that energy from him. I think it's probably a combination of he's a good teammate as a new guy here, but there's also some appreciation for a story that shows some real resilience and some fight which these guys certainly appreciate.”
Bryant faces an uphill battle to make the Commanders 53-man roster. At the receiver position, spots are already reserved for Terry McLaurin, Olamide Zaccheaus, Dyami Brown and rookie Luke McCaffrey. Others like Byron Pringle and Jamison Crowder also have good chances to make the team, so Bryant has a difficult road, but he has made it to where the Commanders will have a difficult time cutting him.
