Tony Romo shouldn’t sign the Cowboys extension
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The blame game of what went wrong continues to be heard on the lips of NFL analysts. Who should be fired? Who should be hired? However the real question to be answered in the Cowboys offseason is whether Tony Romo should sign an extension to keep him a Cowboy for the foreseeable future.
Tony Romo has been one of the best quarterbacks for the Dallas Cowboys in the history of the franchise and is now looking at renegotiating a contract extension with the Cowboys, but Romo shouldn’t do it. The Dallas Cowboys have leaked information about negotiations with Romo on an extension in order to get a more cap friendly extension. However why should Romo continue with the Dallas Cowboys? Romo has the worst job in the NFL with the Dallas Cowboys and that is putting it lightly. The Cowboys are one of the most dysfunctional football clubs in the NFL that rivals the Oakland Raiders easily.
Romo has been part of the majority of the blame for why the Cowboys haven’t succeeded at making a championship run, but his play as an individual is the best on the team for the most part. Romo’s contract expires after the 2013 season and Romo really needs to wait and see before inking an extension. Let alone getting extended to a cap friendly number, because cap friendly only makes sense if the team uses that extra cap space to sign players to make a championship team. Have the Cowboys proved they can put together a championship team? The answer to that question is no.
The only thing the Cowboys have proven is that Tony Romo is better as a poster child for the franchise than to win any Super Bowls and that is the truth. Romo’s time as a Dallas Cowboy won’t be much longer as well, because of the fans increased impatience with Romo. It’s hard to be asked to be the face of the franchise and get blamed for every problem year in and year out. As much as Romo has brought success to the Dallas Cowboys, Romo simply doesn’t need to sign any extensions until they win a Super Bowl. Otherwise what’s the point?
If by the 2013 season the Dallas Cowboys don’t get to the Super Bowl, then Romo needs to start looking for another team to use his services. Finding such a team will be a monumental task, to find a team needing a quarterback and having other pieces for a Super Bowl run, but the Dallas Cowboys are not the place for such a run to manifest itself. The Dallas Cowboys have been the only team Romo has ever played for and given a shot, but Romo needs to move on to newer and better things. Both the Dallas Cowboys and Tony Romo will win from such a split, because it will shock the Cowboys organization into finally taking a chance to really analyze the mistakes they made to let such a thing happen. As long as Romo is with the Cowboys, the Cowboys front office will continue to blind themselves from the problems that Romo does a great job masking.
Once the Cowboys mask is peeled away by the eventual loss of Tony Romo, the Dallas Cowboys will finally understand where they have been failing. In the end, Tony Romo may pick stability over winning and who wouldn’t. However with a career like Romo with only a couple more years left, does Romo want to leave with regret? Regret that he didn’t do everything in his power to put himself in a position to finally get something money can’t buy in a NFL championship. We will watch as these contract extension negotiations go forward, but Tony Romo must realize that change isn’t necessarily a bad thing. What does a man have to lose when nothing was won? Tony Romo has one more year left on his contract for 2013, but in 2014, he needs to find a team that can really use his talents and the Cowboys need to move on.
James Cobern is a Featured Journalist for TPF and can be contacted at JCobern@ThePenaltyFlagBlog.com.
I like this article! Makes lots of sense!
They haven’t even played yet tonight? Weird timing.
To advertise this as the work of a “featured journalist” is a joke. The writing is high school level at best. If this is what passes for journalism these days, then journalism is dead.
how about hiring a general manager and firing Jerry Jones, just like Jimmy Johnson said when he was hired, “Let me do my job and stay out of the way!”, they then won 3 Super Bowls! Find Good Offensive Linemen! So Romo isn’t always running for his life! It’s so easy to blame the quarterback, but with a year of endless injuries, Romo sure kept his “team” in contention until the injuries caught up with them and RG3 proved that! James Cobern…Your article pretty much sucked, it’s ok, you have a right to your opinion as much as i do and i’ve been a Cowboy fan since before the Dynasty of the 90′s!
Gosh James, I sure hope you’re right. I’d love to see Tony Romo leave the Dallas Cowboys. He’s got us snakebit. I think after he leaves, they should retire his number too because no one should ever have to wear that number because of the bad luck that it has. I’ll say a prayer tonight that Tony Romo doesn’t resign.
What horrible writing.
Cowboy fans need to remember how the Boys did in 2010 when Romo was injured and didn’t play. I don’t remember the exact numbers but it was something like 0-6.
Someone in the Dallas Cowboys organization needs to figure out how to trade Jerry Jones.
And replace Romo with whom, exactly? Kyle Orton? Tim Tebow? The fact of the matter is that the elite QBs in the league have teams around them that can pick up the slack if they’re having an off game. The Cowboys, on the other hand, seem to depend entirely upon Romo for whether they win or lose, and when Romo has a bad game (like against Washington) then Dallas doesn’t have a chance.
How many games would Dallas have won this year without Romo? I can guarantee you that the Washington game in week 17 wouldn’t have meant anything. Maybe 3 wins? Romo kept them in contention all year long despite his own slow start, despite having one reliable receiver until Dez finally started showing up, despite running for his life all day every day due to an historically bad offensive line, despite throwing for 40+ times a game due to an historically bad running game (in part due to Murray’s injury, in part due to aforementioned O-line). Romo is simply not the problem. He’s easy to blame for the casual fan since he’s the face of the franchise, and that’s part of the job description for a Cowboys QB.
Put Romo on a team like Rodgers, Brady, or Manning has, and I guarantee playoff success. I heard someone on the radio the other day say that If Manning had come to Dallas and tried to play behind Romo’s O-line, he would be dead by now. I don’t think that’s that far from the truth. Get Romo a support system – something at least to the level of league average, which he’s never really had – and see what happens then. Blame for Dallas’s failures simply does not belong on Tony Romo’s shoulders. At least not until you’ve looked at the owner/GM, the coaching staff, and the players who are supposed to protect him on the field.
People complained about how wade Phillips defense became so vanilla that the other teams knew what they were doing. Well he lost his job for that and garret still sits cozy with his face buried in Jerry’s breast. The guy is an alright coach with potential to be great but he needs a gut check. He’s trying to do too much just like Jerry. Ring in a coach that can run a well disciplined spread offense and romo will be up for MVP. Their personnel is built for this style offense but they insist on the run setting up the pass and its just not working if you’re down by 10 plus point by the end of the first quarter every week. Jason witten had more total receptions than gronkowski and Hernandez combines but only had 3 tds to their 15 plus. Wes welker is considered a great we but before going to that offensive scheme, he could even play on special teams at Miami. Danny wood head is a utility back and he caught over 50 balls this year. Imagine Murray’s potential in this system! They need to let Felix go and grab another back. They should see if Steven Jackson or Blount are available at a decent price…. O line, nose tackle and safety should be priority in the draft. Maybe this tme around Jerry can listen to his coaches when drafting… Tyron smith is a good player but rob Ryan told him to get jj watt. Imagine this team with jj watt ware, spencer, lee carter and the corners we have.