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Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said last week that the Cowboys weren’t going to shut wide receiver Dez Bryant down for the season even though the team has been eliminated from the playoffs and Bryant hasn’t looked all that good since returning from a broken bone in his foot earlier this year.

Coach Jason Garrett repeated that message this week, but Bryant’s body may disagree with the wisdom of continuing to run him onto the field in 2015. Bryant didn’t practice on Wednesday because of foot and ankle injuries that have been bothering him for the last few weeks and multiple Cowboys reporters pass along word that he’ll sit out Thursday’s practice as well.

Playing football is what football players are paid to do, obviously, so it’s not hard to understand why both the team and Bryant would want him to remain in the lineup as long as he’s healthy enough to play. If there’s any doubt about that level of health, though, there’s not much upside to risking further injury issues that could impact Bryant’s preparation for the 2016 season.

Given what the Cowboys went through without Bryant and Tony Romo this year, avoiding anything that could lead to a repeat doesn’t sound like the worst of ideas.