Archer: Without much practice work, what happens to Tony Romo-to-Dez Bryant?

Cotton

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Without much practice work, what happens to Tony Romo-to-Dez Bryant?

Todd Archer
ESPN Staff Writer

IRVING, Texas -- Derek Dooley is like any coach. The Dallas Cowboys' wide receivers coach wants to see his players practice.

Dez Bryant will likely do more in next week’s minicamp as he works his way back from a second bone graft to his surgically repaired right foot in January, but he won’t take part in 11-on-11 drills. That will have to wait until training camp at the end of July.

Bryant has acknowledged that he has had to be more patient than he likes. Dooley feels the same way.

“It’s harder to keep me patient because he needs to work,” Dooley said. “He needs to get out here and play receiver. I think you can probably almost count on your fingers how many days he’s had with Tony Romo since literally the Green Bay (playoff) game of a year and a half ago. I think there’s probably been 15 days where they’ve been together throwing and catching. I don’t care how talented you are. If you’re not out there working on your craft, it can go away from you.

"I’ve talked to Dez about that. So this summer’s really important for him, and certainly training camp, to get his skills back. So all that talent in the world, he’s got it, but you have to go work your craft and hopefully his injury will be 100 percent and when we get out of here, he can go start working in the summer and then really get ready for a great training camp.”

Bryant missed half of the Cowboys’ training camp practices last year because of a hamstring strain. He didn’t play in the preseason games. He broke his fifth metatarsal in the season opener and missed the next five games. His practice schedule for the rest of the regular season was hit or miss depending on how he felt.

Romo suffered a broken left collarbone in the second game of the season and missed seven games. His season ended on Thanksgiving, two games into his return, when he broke the collarbone again.

Their highlight last season was a 16-yard touchdown catch against the Miami Dolphins.

It was a far cry from the connection they had shared from 2010-14. Fifty of Bryant’s 59 career touchdown catches have come from Romo. Of his 412 receptions for 5,825 yards, Romo was responsible for 349 of them for 5,017 yards.

Their past work helps; there’s no question about that. But you also need to work together,” coach Jason Garrett said. “When Dez gets himself healthy and he’s ready to do that, those guys will get plenty of opportunities to do that throughout training camp. It starts with the basic stuff -- throwing routes on air, then throwing one-on-ones and getting in 7-on-7 situations and then the team situations. Those guys do have a great foundation of playing together for a number of years now, but you have to recapture that, and you have to earn that all over again. Certainly those guys, when Dez is ready to go, are going to do that.”

How quickly does Bryant think it will take for him and Romo to get back on the same page?

“It never left,” Bryant said.
 

Simpleton

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Classic June article about nothing.

If both are healthy (playing at least 12 games at mostly full strength) they will be just as dominant a duo as ever.
 
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