An out-of-order (OOO) processor includes ready logic that provides a signal indicating an instruction is ready when all operands for the instruction are ready, or when all operands are either ready or are marked back-to-back to a current instruction. By marking a second instruction that consumes an operand as ready when it is back-to-back with a first instruction that produces the operand, but the first instruction has not yet produced the operand, latency due to missed cycles in executing back-to-back instructions is minimized.