No one knows when Dez Bryant will return from the broken foot he suffered in the Cowboys' season opener. Depending on who's telling the story, it could be anywhere from four weeks to 2016.
Wherever the truth lies, Bryant has urged people to ignore the speculation and he'll return to the field ... when he returns to the field.
But Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones, who in 2011 had foot surgery similar to Bryant's, cautions the Cowboys star to not rush his comeback.
“With Dez, he’s just going to have to take time and get healed up properly,” Jones said on a conference call Wednesday, via the Star-Telegram.com. “You don’t want to rush it and then it sets you back. If you come back too early, then it can put you back again. So, my thing to Dez is, just get fully healthy and then you can go out there and help your teammates."
Jones knows of what he speaks. he re-injured that foot in 2013 and missed the final 11 games of the season.
“It was very difficult for me, but I understood the bigger picture,” Jones admitted. “The next year I didn’t want to be going through the same thing again, and I’ve been back a year now and going into this year I haven’t had a foot injury or problem at all with my foot.”
Last week, Jones' teammate, wide receiver Roddy White, said that he doesn't expect Bryant back this season.
"Me and Julio were talking about the whole situation and he was like, when he heard that he broke his foot he was like, 'He's got the same injury I got,'" White said during an appearance on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio. "And, you know, we had to shut him [Julio] down for the whole entire year. So I just don't see him making it back this year. Or if he does make it back it will probably be late in the playoffs, so it'll probably be around January.
"Anytime you are coming off a foot injury, you know, he's not going to be running or anything like that," White continued. "It'll be weeks before he can actually apply any kind of pressure onto it or even start walking around. So he's got a long haul ahead of him, so he's got to be patient with this thing. Plus he just signed a new contract so he's got to be as patient as possible and just kind of take it easy."
The dilemma facing the Cowboys: They're also without quarterback Tony Romo, who fractured his clavicle in Sunday's win over the Eagles, and he could miss two months. Luckily, owner Jerry Jones has all the confidence in the world in Romo's replacement, Brandon Weeden.
"[Weeden]'s a thing of beauty on throwing a football," Jones gushed during a Tuesday radio interview. "His passing motion and his arm, frankly, you won't see a more gifted passer, power, accuracy, the entire aspect of it. If he can basically prepare, be the starting quarterback, come in and execute and keep his head right, then I feel good about Weeden."
