Quarterback Tony Romo presumably won’t be on the Cowboys’ roster next season, nor are they likely to find a trade partner for him, but he won’t be leaving Dallas imminently. There’s a possibility the Cowboys will retain the soon-to-be 37-year-old past the draft, tweets Ian Rapoport of NFL.com.
The Cowboys have been hoping to trade Romo, who’s now behind Dak Prescott in their QB pecking order, but they’re lacking leverage. There are only two obvious possibilities for Romo, Denver and Houston, and the Broncos seem uninterested in acquiring the veteran. Even if the Cowboys release Romo, the Broncos don’t intend “to go that direction,” general manager John Elway told Mike Klis of 9News. Before his conversation with Klis, Elway indicated he’s content to let in-house signal-callers Trevor Siemian and Paxton Lynch compete for the No. 1 job in 2017.
The Texans, unlike the Broncos, don’t have anything resembling a starting QB on their roster. As a playoff-caliber team, they’re a clear fit for the accomplished Romo. One possible problem for the Texans is that they share a state with the Cowboys, whose owner, Jerry Jones, might not want to help out another Texas-based NFL franchise by cutting Romo and essentially giving him to Houston.
The likelihood is that Jones will eventually release Romo, who’s currently slated to rake in a $14MM base salary and count $24.7MM against the Cowboys’ cap in 2017. By designating Romo a post-June 1 cut, the Cowboys would save $12MM of spending space for next season. That would come in handy for a team with just under $5.5MM in breathing room at the moment.
Jerry Jones is a horse’s ass…….
“…The likelihood is that Jones will eventually release Romo, who’s currently slated to rake in a $14MM base salary and count $24.7MM against the Cowboys’ cap in 2017…”
It’s flat out amazing how often this gets repeated by media, seemingly completely oblivious to the substantial reasons this is almost as unlikely to happen as retirement… not impossible but it doesn’t serve Romo’s purposes (he has every reason to desire to continue the current contract for as long as he can), and it doesn’t serve the Cowboys’ 2017 purposes–there is nothing currently on the market that can potentially be more advantageous than a Pro Bowl QB as a back-up, and there almost certainly will be that much less on the market by June 1, regardless of how much more money they’d have to spend.
You see it’s not so simple as saying “that’s too much to spend on a back-up QB.” Think about it please.
Angle 1: The Derek Carr factor… ask the Raiders how valuable a back-up QB can be, ***IF*** he’s capable of delivering, and isn’t just your standard back-up who’s likely not going to be able to win anything for you anyhow.
Angle 2: This is an economic decision, not a social one. All the whining about the horrendous drama that would ensue if Romo stayed on the team another season is forgetful that that situation already played out once, and without any actual negative dramatic consequence to the team’s fortunes. Teams are not charities. Those that give up assets for nothing are destined to fail.
Angle 3: Leverage is just a training camp injury away. Reference Sam Bradford 2016.
Get back to me if Week 1 rolls around and the Cowboys have a backup quarterback eating $25MM of cap space. I’ll tip my hat to you for making a great call if it happens, but it won’t.
Make no mistake… I didn’t say it *will* happen. See “angle 3.”
What I said was it is *more likely to happen* than for him to be released… and if you want to counterpoint, be my guest, but it takes actually engaging the points made as opposed to, in essence, your “wanna bet?” routine.
One more time… it’s not so simple as “but he’ll eat $25m of cap space.” Dig down farther and acknowledge that that $25m of cap space IS GOING TO BE EATEN ONE WAY OR THE OTHER REGARDLESS please. Please? The reality is, the only question is whether it will be eaten in 2017, or split between 2017 and 2018. Dig down farther and recognize that it’s not just a matter of how much the Cowboys will save by releasing him, but then, what the Cowboys actually stand to gain… would anyone in his right mind consider any one player still on the free agency market potentially a greater consequential talent to the Cowboys’ pursuit of a Super Bowl than they would with Romo?… hell, there’s not even that many left that would be considered starting material in the first place, let alone consequential.
What do I *think* will happen?
1. Trade. Last season I counted 1/3 of NFC teams that changed QBs from training camp to the end of September… necessity is, indeed the mother of invention, or in this case, the mother of transaction. Argue against that, and you’re arguing against history.
2. Go to training camp, hot only keep him, but allowing him to compete for the starting job… but/and again, safe in the knowledge that you could still trade him.
3a. Release… would only happen if there appears on the free agency market something unexpected where the talent level is substantial.
3b. Retirement and TV… would only happen if there’s another injury… and so I gauge the likelihood in the same realm as an outright release… in both cases, something significant would have to emerge that we can’t see for now.
Having said all that, it’s not necessary to agree with me 100%… but what’s nauseatingly irrational is to be so dismissive of *any* of the options as media types have been… and particularly in an off-season where ***we just watched*** a team essentially see their entire season end with one play, one hit to their QBs leg.
YOU SEE… it’s true that back-up QBs are not worth much, but that’s because… they *really* aren’t worth much… ie, when they’re called upon, almost none of them are able to deliver in a big game. BUT IT’S ***NOT*** THAT THE BACK-UP ROLE ISN’T WORTH MUCH… indeed, if every team could have Tony Romo kind-of insurance on the bench, they would pay for that… maybe not starter money, but pretty close. It’s just that 1/4 of the starters in the NFL as-is deserve to be back-ups all things being equal… so the talent inventory demands it just makes no sense to spend money on players who can’t actually make a difference. Romo, though, is the ultimate one-off in that equation.
Super Bowls don’t grow on trees, nor even good opportunities to get to a Super Bowl. You’ve got to do what you can when you can, and sometimes even in an unorthodox way. So the argument to hold on to Romo is, at least, not something to be dismissed.
At least.
Backup QB are getting between 3-7 million a year. Keeping romo would cost 5.
You’re eating 20mil no matter what. At least keep him and have something to show for your money than just cut him. Your backup QB is the kid from Boise State, who’s not that impressive.
Per OverTheCap.com (which is just an exceptional resource, btw), you’re going to save only $5m cutting him now, or $14m cutting him June 1. Keeping him is a $25m cap hit. Notably, it’s the same cap hit that Jerry had always thought he’d be paying Romo before Dak became Dak… in other words, it was always budgeted that way, and in fact, Jerry’s coming out better than what he’d always thought he would, regardless, due to the fact he’s paying both of those players, but given the Dak phenomenon, he suddenly doesn’t have to to pay for a Kyle Orton-like-salaried back-up.
Cutting Romo now results in, at best, paying his replacement on the roster $1m, and paying $4m to whatever leftover talent you can get… possibly someone who would compete for a starting job, but not someone who you know would earn it.
Cutting Romo later results in, at best, paying his replacement on the roster $1m, and paying out $13m distributed to whatever bottom-of-the-barrel talents, plural, that you can get on June 1.
Of the three options, including keeping Romo for 2017, each has significant downsides.
But if you ask yourself, “Which option is most likely to eventually prove important to the pursuit of a Super Bowl appearance next season?”… if THAT is used as the guiding standard… there’s a clear winner, which oddly enough, this writer and dozens of others like him don’t seem to comprehend is ***even reasonable.***
Boggles the mind. But then. these aren’t MENSA candidates writing and saying this stuff.
They’re largely sheep, imo, who follow other opinion leaders within their profession. That’s just how I’ve come to perceive it.
It a $5 mil savings to cut him this year (20mil dead Monday, $25 to keep him). If they cut him post June 1 the. They split the $20 mil between this and next year. Next year is a team option so he doesn’t cost anything but an additional $5 mil to keep this year.
Let them battle it out, and if someone else wants to give you something then consider it because you’re still eating $20 mil dead money no matter what. The trading team takes on 14mil this year with 2 additional team options if they choose to keep him.
At least get a 2018 pick that based on how many games he’s healthy for. Better than giving him away like idiots.
Yes, thanks for that correction on the dead money in comparison to the cap hit. I misspoke, and should have slowed down enough to state it more accurately. And/but, as you indicated, it doesn’t really change the conclusion… you’re still encountering a lot of dead money over one season, or spreading a lot of dead money over two.
“Next year is a team option so he doesn’t cost anything but an additional $5 mil to keep this year. ”
===============
His 2018 pre-June 1 dead money number is $5.7m per OverTheCap, com.
Not “nothing,” but yes, that’s very manageable in comparison to this year.
I hadn’t even looked at that, or if I did, it was a long time ago. Huge point. Thanks.
Angle 3c- he could trip at practice and break something, be out permanently and Cowboys on the hook for his entire salary. J Jones makes me sick.
Yes, he could, and yes, that risk has to be weighed as well.
But what you might not be calculating into the equation is… you’re ALREADY on the hook for $20m in dead money, REGARDLESS… so, even in that event, the net cost is $5m.
I dare say that his Raiders teammates might’ve thrown $5m into paying for a Tony Romo-like replacement for Derek Carr last December, if they could have. That’s just not a lot of money, imo, in comparison to the potential impact on the outcome of your season.