Dez Bryant Joins Cowboys Workouts, Tyron Smith To Join Soon

After all the hoopla and second guessing about if, when and why Dez Bryant missed the first players-only workout that the Cowboys conducted on Tuesday, the situation has deescalated somewhat. Calvin Watkins from ESPNDallas reported yesterday that Bryant and at least 40 other players worked out together yesterday.

Tony Romo told Watkins that Bryant looked good, and that all the guys looked crisp during the workout: "He's running pretty well and he's pretty competitive. He's running half speed so sometimes we have to slow him down a bit." Romo also said that Bryant had excused himself from Tuesday's workout due to family matters and that as long as Bryant kept the lines of communication open, everything' was fine.

Lost among all the public hyperventilating about Bryant are two far more important aspects of the player workouts:

1. With 40-45 players attending both practices so far, the Cowboys fielded the the equivalent of a 45-man game day roster for practices, while many other teams are busy watching soap operas. Of course, there are no reports to be found anywhere about the 25 plus other NFL teams that have not started any practices, but Bryant misses one day and it's the end of western civilization as we know it.

2. Tyron Smith, the Cowboys' No. 1 pick, indicated he'd join these workouts shortly. In a tweet to the Cowboys' Teddy Williams and Alex Daniels, Tyron Smith said, "Gotta hold down SC for a couple more days then I'll be back in the D!" Several Cowboys players, including Roy Williams, have already reached out to Tyron Smith via Twitter or text messages, another indication that the Cowboys are a close team that quickly embraces its rookies.

A final little nugget that BTB-member CaliFanInTx pointed out about this whole situation: There were two stories out in parallel yesterday about players working out, one about the Saints and the 37 players who showed up for their practices, the other about the Cowboys and the 40+ players who showed up in Dallas. Both reports were by people who weren't within a thousand miles of either practice, yet were able to deduce that the Cowboys practice was a "somewhat organized team activity", while they were gushing like little schoolgirls at the Saints "surprisingly organized team activities". Take that for what it's worth.