FRISCO, Texas — Before Super Bowl LI, ESPN Insider Adam Schefter reported that Tony Romo wants to play in 2017, pushing off retirement and potential lucrative offers from television networks.
While we can mention a host of potential suitors for Romo, let’s first eliminate the Dallas Cowboys. It’s not happening. The Cowboys made it clear they were rolling with Dak Prescott and the rookie responded with a 13-3 record, 23 touchdown passes and the Offensive Rookie of the Year award.
Last week, owner and general manager Jerry Jones was asked by NFL Nation reporter Paul Kuharsky, who covers the Tennessee Titans and co-hosts a radio show in Nashville, how he could convince Romo to stay in Dallas.
“That’s a tough one,” Jones said. “But one thing’s for sure, going into that playoff game, I really thought that we had the best quarterback personnel even with all the due respect to [Aaron] Rodgers. We had two quarterbacks that were capable, in my mind, of playing at a level that could get us to the Super Bowl in case you had an injury or just your depth at that position. And I felt that we had from about the sixth game on last year, seventh game, thought we had a superior position at quarterback because if Dak got nicked up. We knew he had a hot hand; we knew the team was really motivated around him and he played to the strengths of our team, but we also knew we had Romo and, boy, was he executing well at practice. He could just do about anything he wanted to against our defense.
“So we knew we were in good shape with Dak or with Tony, and so I can still remember the comfort in that position and there’s something to trying to stay there.”
The salary cap says otherwise. Romo is set to count $24.7 million against the cap. Romo’s desire to continue to play is another reason it won’t work. There can’t be an open competition for the starting quarterback job. That wouldn’t be fair to Prescott or Romo. And you don’t pay a $14 million base salary to a backup quarterback. Oh, and Romo won’t take a pay cut. Remember, he wants to play.
The best solution is a clean break with a release or a trade.
But there was a way the Cowboys could have kept both players in 2017 and it goes back to Prescott’s hot hand in an 11-game winning streak.
Had the Cowboys gone back to Romo once he was healthy from the compression fracture in his back and Romo performed the way the Cowboys thought he would entering 2016, then they would have been set for the present and the future.
We can’t extrapolate Romo’s seven snaps against the Philadelphia Eagles that ended with a touchdown pass and say he would have been dominant, but let’s say he performed the way he did in 2014 when the Cowboys went 12-4. Let’s say the Cowboys continued to win, clinched the NFC East and maybe even home-field advantage and made the playoffs. Let’s say the Cowboys won a playoff game or two.
Had all of that happened, the Cowboys gladly would have continued with Romo’s $24.7 million cap figure and $14 million base salary, all the while knowing Prescott would be ready if Romo was hurt in 2017.
Heck, if Romo was hurt upon his return in 2016, they knew they had Prescott in reserve. And if Romo hadn’t performed at a high level, then a decision on his future wouldn’t be so difficult.
But now Jones is facing a tough personal decision, because of his fondness for Romo.
He had his chance to have Romo for the present and Prescott for the future.
Now he will have to see Romo in another uniform and remember what Jones said on 105.3 The Fan after the Cowboys lost to the Green Bay Packers in the divisional round:
“I really believe that Tony Romo will play in a Super Bowl,” Jones said. “Now try that one on. I know that if he’s healthy enough, he’ll be in a Super Bowl. I strongly believe that.”
It just won’t be for the Cowboys.
