IRVING, Texas – Strictly speaking, the Cowboys are officially on their summer break.
In the non-stop world of NFL football, though, it doesn't sound like Tony Romo plans to take a ton of time off before the Cowboys head to training camp in Oxnard, Calif.
"For me, you're going to rest your back for probably a week," he said Thursday. "Then, I'll get right back to just doing what I've been doing. And if it keeps going the way it is, we'll go into camp feeling great."
This was Romo's fullest participation in the Cowboys' offseason program in several years – as has been well-covered this spring. The veteran quarterback was two months removed from collarbone surgery when OTAs began, and he now concludes minicamp three months after that procedure.
In past offseasons, Romo has had to start from square one at training camp – especially with back injuries that have limited his ability to throw and practice. This time around, he said he now has a much better foundation than in recent years, which allows him to focus more on the nuances rather than the basics of his game.
"I feel like now this offseason when I wake up, it's there every day. That's pretty exciting," Romo said. "I think that's part of what has allowed me to, once you are there, now you can start playing with your footwork and doing things to technically, like I said, try to perfect your craft. I'm just excited that I get to throw and practice those things."
That's not something Romo wants to lose during the Cowboys' six-week break before the start of camp. During the downtime, he said he'll be sure to fit in time to keep himself sharp.
"Well, some of the mechanical things that I work on very hard, I'll throw and continue to do," he said.
More notable to Cowboys fans will be the fact that Romo doesn't plan to do this work on his own. On Wednesday afternoon, Dez Bryant said he had plans to work out with his quarterback during the summer. Asked about that a day later, Romo concurred.
"There's a schedule in place. We're going to be out there," he said. "And, like I said, he needs to just run routes and simulate two-minute. You've got to do these little things that emulate practice and games. And the only way to do that is to get out on the football field and go do it."
During the course of a relatively quiet offseason, that's probably been the most dramatic storyline facing this crop of Cowboys. During his rehab from surgery, Bryant has been active during practices, but he didn't partake in any of the competitive portions of Cowboys practices.
He also hasn't had much opportunity to work with Romo since the 2014 season, thanks to a litany of injury and off-field concerns. Despite that, Romo said the issue with Bryant won't be establishing a sense of timing – which shouldn't take long.
Instead, it's much more an issue of Bryant getting comfortable with once again working against live competition – something he did a grand total of nine times last season, and hasn't done since he was shut down for the season during Week 16 of last year.
"It's just a matter of him feeling comfortable with the nuances of the game that really separate someone like a Dez Bryant from others," Romo said. "I think that he understands the only way to get that is to practice and that's why he's going as hard as he has been. I think that you'll see him -- well you really won't see him -- but he'll be working very hard over the next month and a half getting ready, going into training camp hopefully to have done a lot of that already."
That's an image that should be able to hold any Cowboys fan over during the six-week stretch until the real practices begin. Both of the Cowboys' two biggest absences from last season are on track for training camp – and won't be slowing down in the meantime.
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