The Sports Xchange

OXNARD, Calif. — Reasons abound for why Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo expects to build on his outstanding 2014 season with an even better performance this season.

Romo came into camp healthy and stronger than any time over the last three years because it was the first full offseason he has had since 2012. He is injury free and feeling better than ever.

What’s also true is that Romo expects to be better because he’s had a full offseason with offensive coordinator Scott Linehan.

“We’re going to be the same team, but we’re just going to do little wrinkles and guys have to learn intricate detail stuff, but they’re within the structure,” Romo said.

“Our system is our system. We’re going to run it. But we’re going to tweak a thing here and there to improve it. It’s a benefit when you can be in that system for extended periods of time and just tweak things instead of overhauling.”

Romo and Linehan are not only on the same team but they are on the same page, as they have grown close over the last two years. They trust each other and listen to each other.

“If there’s four criteria you want, he hits all four,” Romo said. “You want someone who obviously has the ability to come up with a good game plan for each week. You want someone who has experience, who has gone against multiple looks, multiple coordinators and has a history with them. And then you want to have the interaction between the quarterback and the coordinator where you can have that.”

Linehan agreed.

“Any time you can spend more time with players you coach and the player is spending time with you, you’re going to improve in a lot of areas: communication, kind of what the expectations are,” Linehan said.

“So it’s different in that sense. We’ve got more experience, but what’s also different is that we’re not sitting here managing and trying to figure our way. We’re not still in the rehab process (with Romo’s back) like we were last year. I think that’s huge for us this year with Tony.”

Romo is coming off a 2014 season in which he rebounded from back surgery to have the best season of his career — throwing 34 touchdowns and nine interceptions, while leading the league in completion percentage (69.9), yards per attempt (8.5), passer rating (113.2) and game-winning drives (five).

“I feel good,” Romo said. “It’s been, like I said before, I have a stronger base than I did starting out last year. You go out and you have to figure out where that is going to be during camp.

“You don’t throw and do everything as much at any other point during the year as you do in this month, so you have to make sure you’re always doing things the right way to give yourself the best chance to go out on the field, and I’ve been able to do that.”

Because he is stronger and healthier, Romo is making and attempting throws in camp that he would only try in games last year. He is doing them with more ease, rather than have to consciously try to get his lower body into the throw to get more zip.

Head coach Jason Garrett certainly has noticed a more complete Romo than what he saw last season, which benefits the entire offense.

“Well, I think more than anything else it’s just good for him,” Garrett said. “It’s a tribute to what he’s done the last couple of years coming off these back injuries that he’s had to deal with and to think about playing quarterback in the National Football League and having to practice in a way where your work is a little bit modified, and then having to go play as well as he has in games,” Garrett said.

“It’s really a tribute to him. It’s good to see him back out there, he’s in all the drills, he’s moving around, he looks like himself and not only his movement with his feet, but like you said, he’s able to make more of the spontaneous throws that we’ve seen him make throughout his career. So he clearly is stronger, I think he feels better. Having said that, we’ve got to make sure we monitor him. But he’s certainly much further along physically than he has been in the past.”

–Garrett has had a number for former players come talk to the team and work with them in practice.

Former defensive tackle Russell Maryland has been the latest in a list of Cowboys from the 1970s through the 1990s to come back and work with the team since Garrett took over.

“One of the things we try to do is provide the right examples to our players,” Garrett said. “We try to be the right example as coaches. That’s part of our job — to show them by how we live and how we coach and how we approach our job that this is the way to do it. But any time you can reinforce that message with other people who are really credible, we want to take advantage of that. No one better than Russell Maryland.”

Garrett said the former players are welcomed by the coaches, including defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli, and he doesn’t worry about them sending different messages.

“I think everybody understands what their role is,” Garrett said. “We talk to our assistants about that. Rod Marinelli welcomes it. Rod Marinelli loves having Charles Haley around. He loves having Russell Maryland around. Whenever a new guy comes in, he always features the guy and talks about his career and has that guy talk.

“We’re fortunate to have Randy White this offseason. We had Tony Casillas, Chad Hennings and some of the other guys. Our coaches are ball guys. They followed our football team. They followed these guys’ careers. They have admiration for them. And they want to take full advantage of the opportunity to get better as coaches and certainly to help our players get better.”

–Actor Denzel Washington stopped by practice on Saturday, causing a national buzz at Cowboys training camp. Washington posed for pictures and spoke to the team. He called himself a lifelong Cowboys fan and said his trip to camp was a dream come true.

Cornerback Brandon Carr was among the many players happy to see the longtime actor on hand, and provided a brief recap of Washington’s message to the team.

“Just pretty much take advantage of the situation, of the opportunity at hand, just being blessed and embracing it all,” Carr said. “It doesn’t matter where you came from, it’s what you do from here on out. It’s really about making the best of it.”

Washington met with reporters before practice, saying he has been a Cowboys fan his entire life.

“I’m talking about Duane Thomas,” Washington said. “I’m talking about Walt Garrison, Calvin Hill, Tony Dorsett. So I’ve been a fan for a long time. Just to be out here is just fun for me.”

Washington left midway through practice with his son, J.D., also an actor, who plays the character Ricky Jerret in the HBO series “Ballers.”

“I’m just happy I get to meet Tony Romo and them guys,” he said. “This is a dream for me. I got to live out my dream through my son. Days like today are just fun days for me.”

–Cowboys owner Jerry Jones didn’t attend the Hall of Fame induction ceremony of defensive end Charles Haley because of flying limitations from recent hip replacement surgery and concerns over clotting.

Jones is required to be at a special NFL owners meeting on Aug. 11 and didn’t want to risk back-to-back flights.

“He can fly, but they want it to be few and far between,” his son, Stephen Jones, said. “Unfortunately he has to be at an NFL meeting, and then you put back-to-back flights. It’s difficult.”

–WR Dez Bryant remains sidelined indefinitely because of a hamstring injury. He will miss Thursday’s preseason opener against the San Diego Chargers. He was unlikely to play much anyway as the starters rarely go more than a series in the preseason opener. With Bryant injured, the Cowboys were most certainly going to err on the side of caution. Stephen Jones said the Cowboys aren’t going to rush Bryant back and sees this as an opportunity to get him into football shape after missing the offseason and minicamp in a contract dispute.

“He missed such a significant part of the offseason,” Jones said. “It was obviously a concern, whether it was verbalized by the organization that we were going to have to manage that situation. This will let (athletic trainer) Britt Brown and our strength and conditioning staff work with him and get him into an even better place. Dez is never going to be out of shape. But there is a difference between being in great shape and ready to play games.”

–CB Brandon Carr had surgery on a broken bone in his right hand Monday in Dallas, Garrett said.

Carr is expected to rejoin the team Tuesday, but it is unknown when he will return to practice. He is expected to be ready for the season opener.

“This is not my first go-round,” Carr said. “I have a feel for what it takes to get prepared for games. If you miss some preseason games for the greater good of the team or myself, then that’s what it takes to get ready.”

Carr, 29, has never missed a regular-season game because of an injury.

“I take a lot of pride in being able to fight through whatever is going on to suit up on Sunday,” Carr said. “At the same time, I’ve been blessed. It’s not all me. It’s really not me at all. I’ve just been blessed to play through certain injuries and stay away from the major ones.”

–RB Darren McFadden (hamstring) remains on PUP but continues to make progress. He will miss the preseason opener but the team hopes he will be ready to practice Saturday.

–LB Rolando McClain is making progress. He is going through rehab exercises with an oxygen deprivation mask, but there is no timetable for his return. And he remains on the physically unable perform list because of offseason knee surgery.

“The big thing with him is the conditioning part, then putting your cleats on and doing the on-the-field work,” head coach Jason Garrett said. “He hasn’t practiced, didn’t really practice very much throughout the offseason, hasn’t practiced up to this point in camp, but we do think he’s making progress.”

–RB Lance Dunbar (ankle) remains sidelined and will not play against the Chargers in the preseason opener.

BATTLE OF THE WEEK: Wide receiver Cole Beasley has the early lead on Lucky Whitehead to replace Dwayne Harris as the Cowboys’ primary punt returner. Beasley has dropped nothing in practice and is earning a bigger role in the offense as the third receiver. Whitehead is a rookie free agent who probably will make the roster, but he needs to impress as a punt returner and unseat Beasley if he hopes to be active.