We all expected to see Tony Romo released by the Dallas Cowboys and even he predicted that to happen considering that he recorded a farewell video and posted it to Instagram. However, as of Monday, he is still the member of the Cowboys.
There are several contradictory reports about Tony Romo’s status and future, but it will all boil down to the Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’ decision. We understand that he is worried that Romo might join the Texans and turn them into the dangerous title contender.
Shannon Sharpe and Skip Bayless talked about Tony Romo on Monday’s episode of Undisputed and according to Sharpe, the NFC East is becoming tougher while Jerry Jones is undecided about his move.
Skip said that Tony Romo would be a starter in Week 1. He declared: “I’m going to give you my gut feeling, and it’s been my feeling from the start: I still believe Tony Romo’s going to be the starting quarterback for my Dallas Cowboys. I’ve said it from the start. It looked like my instincts were wrong that one fateful day – it was the day before free agency opened, that Wednesday when the story breathlessly broke, ‘Tony Romo is being released!’”
Skip continued: “And I thought it was imminent, like that day… no. It didn’t happen that day. Then it didn’t happen the next day, then it didn’t happen three or four more days, and now it’s dug in and going nowhere fast. Right?”
Skip also said that Jerry wants Romo to stay with the team. So does Romo. In Skip’s words: “Here’s my question to you: [In his] heart of hearts, what does Jerry Jones want the most? He wants for Romo to be his starting quarterback and go win a Super Bowl. Heart of hearts, what does Tony Romo want the most in life? He wants to finish his career with the Dallas Cowboys. He’s going to have three kids and a wife who has Dallas roots, and they want to stay in Dallas, Texas. It’s their home. That’s where they are going to make their life, so he doesn’t want to uproot, even to go south for four hours to Houston, Texas. Or certainly to Denver, Colorado.”
He added: “So, help me out here. Is it not starting to feel like they’re almost back in cahoots here? That they’re trying to sell this to Cowboy Nation, slowly but surely, that Tony Romo is going to get a 50/50 shot to compete with Dak Prescott? And if it’s 50/50, I’m going to say it’s 51/49, because Tony Romo’s going to win that battle. That’s just me.”
Skip said that the worst thing for Jerry Jones would be if Romo joined the Texans. He stated: “Jerry Jones has paid this man $108 million dollars, $55 million guaranteed, and over the last two years he’s gotten a grand total of five games out of him. For all that money, he’s just going to hand him to a ‘rival’? [The Texans are] really a Cowboy wannabe, and Bob McNair is a Jerry wannabe as an owner. But Jerry could make him a Jerry if he hands him Tony Romo and the worst of all fates happens. It’s starting to feel like both Jerry and Tony have come full-circle and said ‘you know what? We can make this work here. I can still fit your salary underneath [the cap].’ I just have this sinking feeling that Dak Prescott is going to have to go win his job again, as he had to do for about 12 straight games last year.”
Shannon said that if it hadn’t been for the Osweiler trade, Romo could have been gone. “I think this is another excuse for Jerry to try to drive up the price and get something for Romo, and it’s also another excuse for if he can’t get the price that he wants, I can bring him back. I’ve talked to some people and they believe that had Brock Osweiler not been traded to Cleveland, Tony Romo would have already been released. But once Brock got traded and they got something for him – now never mind the fact that they packaged Brock with a second-round. If you’re going to trade Tony Romo with a second-round pick in order to get a fourth or a fifth-round pick back, yeah somebody will take Tony Romo off your hands. But it’s going to be hard for me to believe even in that scenario, with that contract – $24.7 million cap hit – I just don’t see how a team takes that on to their cap,” explained Shannon.
According to Shannon, Tony Romo is not an attraction Jerry Jones thinks he is. “Jerry keeps saying Tony is ‘box office.’ Tony is not what’s box office… the Cowboys are box office. Skip, they’ve won two playoff games in 20 NFL seasons. They’re the most profitable, they’re the most valuable, they’re the most watched team in the NFL. Now under that time frame, the New England Patriots have gone to eight Super Bowls and won five. The Broncos have gone to four and won three. The Giants have gone to three and won two. And the Cowboys, who have won two playoff games, are more profitable, more watched, more valuable than all of those franchises. It’s not Tony Romo, Jerry! It’s the star. You could have the butcher from the local grocery store [as] your quarterback and they’re going to watch, because [it’s] the Cowboys,” commented the former tight end.
He also believes that if Romo is to win a Super Bowl with the Dallas Cowboys, he would immediately become an elite player. Shannon claimed: “To make a long story short – Tony Romo is loved by the Cowboys’ fans. Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach are revered because what do they have, Skip? Super Bowls. If Tony Romo were to get one, he would be looked at like Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman. Right now the fans just love him.”
Shannon concluded with the fact that the Cowboys are stuck in the mud while the other teams improve. He ended: “This is getting ridiculous here with Jerry Jones. Jerry, go ahead and trade Tony. You’ve lost your entire secondary. Now unless you draft a corner and he’s ready to step in immediately… if you look at the Giants, they got better on the offensive side with Brandon Marshall. The Eagles, they got better on the offensive side with Alshon Jeffery. Although I don’t put him in the category of Brandon Marshall, they’re better. I think the Washington team took a step back. Losing DeSean Jackson, losing Pierre Garcon and replacing them with Terrelle Pryor? And I think Terrelle Pryor’s on the uptick, but he isn’t those two guys.…. I just don’t see how Tony Romo, after all these years, the likelihood of him taking the Cowboys to and winning a Super Bowl in year 13 or 14 is just very, very unlikely to me.”
