FRISCO, Texas _ The Cowboys rookies and linebacker Jaylon Smith reported Wednesday for a brief camp that precedes the entire roster reporting Friday for physicals and heading Saturday for training camp in Southern California.
Smith was drafted in 2016, but did not play all of last season as he recovered from a severe knee injury. His progress and ability to play and practice will be among the most-watched storylines of camp and the preseason. A damaged nerve in his knee has yet to fully heal, so he wears a brace that aids an ongoing drop-foot condition.
"He's done well," coach Jason Garrett said Wednesday at a coaching clinic at The Ford Center at The Star, "really had a great spring and handled the work on the field really well. He's been outstanding in his rehab, and that's one of the reasons we took the chance on him that we did. I think we had a really good feel for the kind of person that he is based on our experiences with the people at Notre Dame and what they said about him, and then just our experiences throughout the evaluation process.
"Trust me, he hasn't had bad days. He comes to work every day with a great spirit. It's a challenging injury he was coming back from and he's handled it very well. Still have a long ways to go. We're going to take it day by day, but he's made a lot of progress."
Garrett said the Cowboys would work out Smith's schedule at training camp, but during organized team activities and a mandatory minicamp, he essentially practiced every other day.
"So we've just got to be careful about getting ahead of ourselves with him," Garrett said.
The rookie class is on hand early in part because many of them could be taking part in the Hall of Fame game against Arizona on Aug. 3 in Canton, Ohio.
"It's been a really good thing for us," Garrett said. "We could theoretically start training camp today with our full football team, 15 days prior to that Hall of Fame game. But we chose to just bring the rookies in here for the first three days, the veterans will get here on Friday, and then we'll go out to California on Saturday.
"It's another good exposure for the rookies, just did meetings today, they got their physicals done, we'll be out on the field tomorrow just an opportunity to get themselves acclimated and get their feet under them."
