Tony Romo (back) doing some throwing

Cowboys HC Jason Garrett updated the status of QB Tony Romo, who is still recovering from back surgery.

“He’s built up from not being able to do much, to walking around, to doing cardio, to being out on the field,” Garrett said. “We had our first on-the-field session today, we’re in Phase 2 of our offseason program, our teaching sessions. He was on the field for 45 minutes with the other guys – he threw the ball, he dropped back.”

The Cowboys’ quarterback prospects have been the subject of plenty of speculation since Romo missed the Cowboys’ season finale at the end of December – especially with the looming possibility of drafting a replacement. It’s not a concern either Garrett or Jones seemed to share, though.

“We feel good about Tony’s health, first-hand, medically. His back is everything that we want it to be at this time,” Jones said. “So we feel very strongly about the edge that our quarterback gives us, and it’s a great place to be.”

Much has been written about how Romo will thrive under new “Passing Game Coordinator” Scott Linehan. Under Linehan, the Lions threw the ball 62.2% of the time in the last two seasons. Over the same span, the Cowboys threw it 64.3% of the time, so the Cowboys may not be that much more "pass happy" under Linehan, though the number of plays they run could increase, helping the offense as a whole. The Lions have averaged 1,105 plays in the last two seasons, while the Cowboys averaged just 968 plays, so Detroit ran 14% more plays than Dallas over that span. This bodes well for Romo and Co.