It wasn’t too long ago that the idea of giving Dez Bryant a huge contract extension seemed like tossing money into a garbage can and setting fire to it.
Bryant was undeniably talented, and a headache for the Dallas Cowboys. You haven’t thought about Bryant’s off-field issues in a while, have you? That’s because there has been nothing to think about. Bryant has been as quiet off the field as he is dynamic on it. But in July of 2012, when Bryant was arrested for allegedly attacking his mother (the misdemeanor assault charges were dropped later in the year), it didn’t seem like Bryant’s future was all that bright. He had a long line of off-field issues that had piled up.*
If suspended receivers Justin Blackmon and Josh Gordon need a role model, Bryant isn’t a bad one. Bryant has completely turned his image around. His transformation in two years has been amazing, and now he’s not only one of the best players on the 6-1 Cowboys, he seems like one of the team’s leaders. It also seems like Bryant will be a sound investment for Cowboys owner Jerry Jones before he hits free agency.
There was concern about having Bryant play out his contract year, especially after left tackle Tyron Smith got a huge extension. How would Bryant react? The results have been good. Bryant had nine catches for 151 yards in a 28-21 win over the New York Giants on Sunday and it’s hard to argue he wasn’t the best player on the field (though DeMarco Murray, who had yet another 100-yard day, would have a good case). Bryant now has 45 catches for 590 yards this season, on pace for another great season.
Bryant turns 26 in November. There’s almost no chance the Cowboys are going to let him go, whether he agrees to a long-term extension or the Cowboys give him the franchise tag. A scout once said Bryant had the “worst background” he’d ever seen, but Bryant has turned that into a great story. And for Jones, whose personnel moves are often mocked, his gamble on Bryant has paid off and then some, especially with his Cowboys looking like one of the NFL’s elite teams.
Here are the rest of the winners and losers from Week 7 in the NFL:
WINNERS
Kyle Orton and Doug Marrone: When the Buffalo Bills fell to 2-2, Marrone made a decision that was second-guessed, sitting 2013 first-round pick E.J. Manuel for journeyman veteran Kyle Orton.
Not that Manuel had played well, but it was still a bold move to give Manuel the hook so soon into a season, with the Bills still at .500. Especially since Orton has established his role in the NFL: a solid quarterback who can execute the offense but rarely will do anything special.
But lo and behold, Orton made one of the biggest plays of the NFL season so far, and Marrone looks pretty smart. Orton – who also led a last-minute drive in his first start to beat the Detroit Lions – took the Bills 80 yards in 3:06 with Buffalo trailing by six, and hit rookie Sammy Watkins with one second left to give Buffalo a dramatic 17-16 win. The degree of difficulty on the win was high after the Bills lost their top two tailbacks, Fred Jackson and C.J. Spiller. Orton came through.
Orton's career looked to be over when he threatened retirement all offseason. He did that to force the Cowboys to release him (you can argue the ethics of that), and then the Bills gave him a two-year, $11 million contract that seemed a bit expensive. But now with the Bills at 4-3 thanks to two late victories led by Orton, it all makes sense.*

Indianapolis Colts defense, and their title hopes: Colts quarterback Andrew Luck played well again, but that's to be expected by this point. He's one of the best players in the NFL. What was surprising is that the Colts once again put on a defensive clinic, this time against the Cincinnati Bengals.
The Colts had their first shutout since 2008 in a 27-0 victory, and it was even more lopsided than that score indicates. The Colts outgained the Bengals 506-135. That should not happen in the NFL. Especially to a good team (though, we can argue after the last three weeks how good the Bengals really are).
A.J. Green was out with a toe injury again, and bad Andy Dalton showed up for the Bengals, but that doesn’t explain Cincinnati getting just 135 yards and eight total first downs.
The Bengals were absolutely destroyed. The Colts also dominated the Baltimore Ravens two weeks ago, so maybe we shouldn’t view this as a fluke.
The Colts started 0-2, with losses to the Denver Broncos and Philadelphia Eagles, and there’s nothing wrong with that. They’re 5-0 since, and looking like a team that can win a Super Bowl, especially if the defense is capable of more days like these.
Denard Robinson: For his first 22 NFL games, Robinson had 48 carries. After his 22 carries on Sunday, it's hard to understand what took so long for the Jacksonville Jaguars to give him a real shot.
Robinson rushed for 127 yards in the Jaguars' first win of the season, a 24-6 victory over the Cleveland Browns. Robinson looked very good too, making defenders miss whenever he had the ball ... basically, what he was at the University of Michigan when he played quarterback. He looked fantastic.
Toby Gerhart hasn't worked out for the Jaguars. Storm Johnson got his shot and struggled too. After Robinson's coming-out party, the Jaguars are going to see if he's the answer. After how he played on Sunday, a lack of playing time won't be an issue for Robinson going forward.

Jeff Fisher: I’ve been critical of Fisher, especially early this year as the St. Louis Rams have underachieved. But I respect his fake punt call at the end, which was the biggest play in a 28-26 win over the Seattle Seahawks. You thought Bill Belichick was being gutsy going for it on fourth down against the Colts a few years ago? Fisher called a fake punt from his own 18-yard line in a two-point game. Wow.
That's how you play to win. Again, let’s celebrate one of the craziest play calls you’ll ever see in the NFL:

LOSERS
Drew Brees: It’s hard to totally blame a guy for a loss after he threw for 342 yards. And he had nothing to do with the Saints defense not tackling Lions receiver Golden Tate on a long touchdown that gave Detroit some hope to come back on Sunday.
But Brees’ lone interception has put the Saints’ season in a really, really bad place.
Brees didn’t see safety Glover Quin lurking in the middle of the field when he threw to Marques Colston with a little more than three minutes to go in a 23-17 game. Instead of the Saints punting and forcing the Lions into a long drive to win the game, Detroit took over at New Orleans' 14-yard line. The Lions got the game-winning score to Corey Fuller on the ensuing drive. It was a terrible mistake, especially from a future Hall of Famer.
Brees hasn’t been bad this season (he has thrown for 300 yards in four of six games and 293 in another) but the Saints are now 2-4 and Brees hasn’t been as great as he usually is. He was far from the only reason the Saints lost Sunday, but the Saints are in a full slump now and needed their quarterback to carry them to a much-needed win. It didn't happen.

Brian Hoyer: Nobody should jump off the Hoyer bandwagon after a bad day. But, most quarterbacks who have a bad week don’t have a first-round pick waiting behind them.
No need to sugarcoat what happened at Jacksonville on Sunday. Hoyer was terrible. He was 16-of-41 and threw 10 straight incompletions at one point. And the Jaguars defense isn’t very good; it was ranked 30th in total yards allowed and 30th in passing yards allowed before Sunday.

It was a terrible game for a quarterback who was pretty good in the team’s 3-2 start. He has built up enough goodwill that his job is certainly not in jeopardy. Not yet anyway. A couple more games like this, and it might need to be reevaluated.
The “Thursday Night Football” matchup: Finally, finally we were going to get a true marquee “TNF” matchup next week between the San Diego Chargers and Denver Broncos, a great AFC West battle between arguably the two best teams in the NFL through six weeks. And then the Chargers had to go and take some luster off it.
The Chargers have had a couple strange weeks after a great start to the season. San Diego struggled to beat the Oakland Raiders in Week 6, which could have been an excusable blip for the Chargers, had they not followed it up with a 23-20 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. The way the Chargers lost, giving up a long drive in the final two minutes after tying the game, is a bit concerning.
Maybe the Chargers were looking ahead, because Thursday’s game still is huge in the AFC West race. But right now, it looks like there’s some separation between the best team in the division and the second best.

Panthers defense: Last year, the Panthers rode Cam Newton and a great defense to an NFC South championship. This year, at least they have Newton (and even he was off on Sunday).*
The Panthers defense has disappeared. It gave up 38 points to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, a week after giving up 37 to the Bengals, who barely cracked 100 yards against the Colts. In the Panthers' three games before that, they allowed 37, 38 and 24 points. That streak also started when defensive end Greg Hardy went on the exempt/commissioner's permission list.
Hardy's absence is not the only reason for the Panthers' struggles. The struggles are real though. If the Panthers don't figure it out fast, it's hard to see them coming close to repeating last year's success.
What in the world did the Browns think they were doing on this call?: So, Cleveland had the good idea to send out the punt team on fourth down in the fourth quarter, then run it off and run on the offense to fool the Jaguars. And was it ever bad.
The Jaguars' defense was given time to substitute, by rule, when the Browns substituted. So the Jags got their defense back on the field. Then the Browns ran a fairly hopeless option play that lost 2 yards.
That was better than just lining up and running a play on fourth-and-5? Here's the evidence of one of the strangest plays you'll see:

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab