Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant close to full return

Dez Bryant was in the locker room Saturday to meet the rookies.

He even played catch on the side during their minicamp.

Though he hasn’t been cleared for the Dallas Cowboys’ off-season program, Bryant is looking more and more like the Dez of old.

“He’s done a really good job with his rehab, and he’s made progress,” Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said.

“Like with all those guys, it’s a day-by-day, week-by-week thing. But he’s had no setbacks, and he really continues to get better and better.”

Cowboys receivers coach Derek Dooley anticipates Bryant being a full participant by June 1. The team’s minicamp is June 16-18.

Bryant played only nine games last season, none completely healthy. He ended the season on injured reserve and required more foot and ankle surgery in the off-season.

“The biggest thing with him is conditioning,” Dooley said. “It doesn’t matter how good you might be, if you’re not in physical condition to run routes and to get people off you, it’s going to be hard. So we almost, with Dez, have got to go back to square one, go back to the fundamentals.

“It’s almost as if he’s had a year off. Develop our skill sets as a wideout, but at the same time, get back into a level of conditioning to allow yourself to apply those skills 65, 70 snaps in a game.

“That’s not going to happen in nine OTAs. It’s going to be him really pushing himself this summer without us around and then having a great training camp.

“I feel like if we can get through those three phases, he’ll be ready to go.”

Smiths to fullback

Linebacker Keith Smith is making the transition from linebacker to fullback in hopes of having a better opportunity to make the team.

Rod Smith is also switching to fullback from tailback, and is expected to compete with Keith Smith for the job.

Tyler Clutts, who has been with the Cowboys since late 2013, is a free agent. He played in 13 percent of the offensive snaps (133) a season ago, and also had 79 snaps on special teams.

Keith Smith has been a fringe player to make the 53-man roster, being shuffled on and off the active roster multiple times the past two seasons. But the Cowboys like what he brings to special teams, and feel he would have more value if he can transition to fullback.

“You are looking for reasons to keep a guy like that on the team,” Garrett said. “Sometimes you feel better about him maybe playing a different position than linebacker, or you have other guys that have surpassed him at the linebacker position.

“You want to give those guys a chance there, and you still want to give him a chance to make the team somewhere else.”

Smith is listed at 6-foot, 232 pounds and seems to have the build to make the switch work.

Garrett pointed to former Cowboys fullback Robert Thomas, who had success making the change.

Missing Ramsey?

The Cowboys faced an interesting decision with the fourth overall pick in last week’s draft — Ohio State running back Ezekiel Elliott or Florida State defensive back Jalen Ramsey.

Both were coveted by the Cowboys, but they ultimately felt Elliott gave them the better chance to win in the immediate future.

And secondary coach Joe Baker is more than OK with how everything played out, even though they passed on a player (Ramsey) who some felt ranked as the top player of the class.

Baker, going into his fifth season with the team, remembered the 2014 season, when DeMarco Murray carried the offense and the Cowboys owned the time of possession. That kept the defense fresh, and the hope is that Elliott provides a similar type game.

“I remember what that was like when we were running the rock and the DBs were drinking a lot of Gatorade on the sideline. I loved that,” Baker said, chuckling. “So I’m all-in. And we ended up getting two DBs who we feel like are really good additions to the secondary. So I feel like we’ve gotten better also.”

This story was originally published May 7, 2016 at 4:51 PM with the headline "Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant close to full return."