IRVING, Texas – The Cowboys are in the midst of a wait and see process with quarterback Tony Romo.
Head coach Jason Garrett said it's a little bit of a day-to-day process right now with Romo coming off back surgery, but he's hoping Romo will feel healthy enough to get some work in during Organized Team Activities.
"We'll see how he does this week," Garrett said Sunday, while speaking at the "Taste of the NFL" event at the Gaylord Texan. "We're hopeful he can do something. He's done a little bit of stuff, then he's kind of backed off and done a little bit more and backed off, so we've just got to kind of evaluate how his workouts go this week."
Garrett said he'd love for Romo, who's thrown some since the surgery, to be available for everything during OTAs, but he wants to be smart with the franchise quarterback's progress.
"We recognize it's the third week of May, and what we're trying to do is get him ready to play in the regular season," Garrett said. "I think you want to be aggressive with it, but you also want to be smart with it. It also affords the other quarterbacks an opportunity to play and get to know the system. Being in a football setting, where they're breaking the huddle and going against a defense, that's different than what we're doing right now." [embedded_ad]
The uncertainty regarding Kyle Orton's return complicates matters, but the signings of quarterbacks Brandon Weeden and Caleb Hanie in the offseason at least provides some insurance that the Cowboys will have multiple arms at practice if Romo gets dialed back. They also brought on unrestricted free agent quarterback Dustin Vaughan after the draft.
OTAs begin next week from May 27- 29. They'll pick back up the following week on June 2. The OTAs continue June 4-5 and June 9-12, prior to the start of mandatory minicamp, which begins June 17.
The Cowboys want Romo to get some work in, but Garrett's primary focus is getting the quarterback ready for the games that count.
"It's day by day then it's week by week," Garrett said. "You have a big plan, then you kind of see how you're doing along that plan and you make the adjustments accordingly. We'll be smart with him, but he's chomping at the bit to get back. But we've got to make sure we do the right things."
