All the way back in Week 1, the Dallas Cowboys lost wide receiver Dez Bryant to a broken bone in his foot during a win over the New York Giants. Bryant had surgery the following day and his reported timeline to return from injury ranged anywhere from 4 to 12 weeks, depending on which of the many, many reports you were reading at the time.
The Cowboys managed to defeat the Eagles without Dez in Week 2, but they've lost three consecutive games since. They now sit a game behind the Giants in the NFC East, tied with both Philly and Washington with a 2-3 record. In an effort to return from the injury after Dallas' Week 6 bye, Bryant had bone marrow stem cells removed from his hip and injected into his ankle, per the Dallas Morning News.
According to owner Jerry Jones, "It has the potential to improve the healing time but more important gives him and everyone more confidence that when he comes back, at whatever the time is, it will be sounder and I think that was the overriding reason for doing it. It will be sounder even if he kept the same timeframe. It could easily speed it up, but if not, what you're always going to be worried about [is] if you wait another week maybe you've got less chance of reinjuring it or basically rushing it. That will give us more peace of mind on rushing it."
Despite warnings from players like Julio Jones (and Jones' teammate, Roddy White), who suffered a similar injury back in 2011, Bryant has been setting an aggressive course for his recovery from the beginning. He laughed at reports he'd be out 10-12 weeks, stating on Twitter that "we will just see" how long he's out.
With quarterback Tony Romo also out until at least Week 11 with a broken clavicle and Brandon Weeden in the lineup, the Dallas offense has not been able to get much going the last few weeks. Getting Bryant back on the field would obviously help matters, but it does seem far more important that Bryant let his foot completely heal so the injury doesn't recur.
