Jon Machota and Brandon George of The Dallas Morning News are back with an all-new edition of Candidly Cowboys discussing their observations following the first 'open to the media' Dallas Cowboys OTA session this offseason.

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Highlights from the episode:

Checking in on Dez's health

Jon Machota: It's the first time we got a chance to talk to him in a while. I think what was kind of interesting is that, when you're around somebody like that all of a sudden you want to ask him about the foot and where he sits with that. And to keep in mind, I don't think I mentioned this, but he is gonna have an X-ray coming up within the next couple of weeks to kind of determine where he's at ... if he can be cleared for the next stage. It all hinges on what that X-ray says. If there was no X-ray and there were no doctors, Dez Bryant would be out there. He made that very clear.

Brandon George: If I understand it, it's not like a concern about the X-ray; it's more about just a checkup and see how far along he is right?

Would Dez pull a Calvin Johnson and retire early?

Jon Machota: Right, absolutely. And that is something that he talked about. But another thing, not talking to him in a while, I wanted to ask him about Calvin Johnson, a guy that obviously Dez looks up to and a guy that just recently stepped away from the game at 30-years-old. Dez is 27. I was just interested to get his take on what he thought about Calvin retiring, stepping away from the game when obviously he still has tread left on the tire. And just kind of what that makes Dez think of with his own career.

Brandon George: Dez is only 27. He's three years away from where Calvin was at this point when he was retiring this offseason. As you know, you talk about Dez Bryant maybe retiring early, it literally would have to be some kind of major injury that would force Dez Bryant to retire early. There's just no way I could see a healthy Dez Bryant stepping away from the game early in his career. He's gonna leave everything out there. He's so competitive. You just wonder how he's gonna be able to manage those competitive juices when he's not playing football. What is he gonna do? How's that gonna look in his life? Dez is gonna run all the tread off his tires before he's done. It's going to be interesting to see what Dez Bryant actually looks like at the end of his career. But I can pretty much guarantee you he's not going to retire early, unless he's hurt.

Dez Bryant's passion for football

Jon Machota: No question. I agree with you on that. He's as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than any receiver I've ever watched play the game. I agree with you 100 percent. I don't see him stepping away from the game early. It'll be one of those things where I really feel like he'll have to be past his prime and he's just not the same player he once was and maybe he'll lose a little bit of passion for the game then. I tell you what, I can't see that happening any time in the near future. You suffer some of the injuries that Dez has suffered ... you look at some of these pictures of Dez's hand from that finger injury that he played through. He still can't straighten that finger all the way out. There's a lot of stuff most people, if they had these problems in life, they'd be like 'Yeah, this is enough.' But this is life.

Brandon George: I'll take you even further than that. I guess it was three or four years ago when the Cowboys played the Redskins late in the season. Dez was hurt, he hurt his back. I just remember they brought him into the locker room in a wheelchair. He was in so much pain, you could see him kind of bending over and yelling out. He was in his wheelchair and he just looked terrible. I've been around sports for two decades now and I can't ever remember seeing an athlete in that much pain after a game. A couple of months later, he was back running and everything. You're just not gonna keep Dez Bryant down long.

Twitter: @jonmachota, @DMN_George