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There is nothing certain about Tony Romo
After a rough tackle early in the preseason game at Seattle on Thursday night, Tony Romo, 36, got an MRI Friday and discovered he’d fractured a vertebra in his back. The starting job falls now to the 135th pick in the 2016 draft, Dak Prescott of Mississippi State. Romo faces the frustrating madness of a fourth straight year with a significant injury (disk surgery, two fracture back bones, fractured clavicle, re-fractured clavicle, and now a fractured vertebra), but did tell one club official over the weekend: “I’m gonna be in Dak’s back pocket to help him. We’re gonna win games with Dak.”
Brave talk. Hasn’t worked that way in the past in Dallas.
Two important points here, from Cowboys COO and director of player personnel Stephen Jones on Sunday afternoon:
• Dallas is all-in with Dak Prescott. Remember the draft-day obsession with Memphis quarterback Paxton Lynch? As I reported last spring, the Cowboys spent 67 minutes and 19 phone calls with at least nine teams trying to move up in the draft to take Lynch late in the first round. They failed, settling for Prescott late in the fourth round. Now? “I don’t think our guys would even consider trading Prescott for Lynch right now,” said Jones. “No, I know they wouldn’t. That’s how much they like Dak right now.” Look for Dallas to pick up a veteran body as a backup—but only to back up Prescott—as bodies get waived and traded in this week of roster movement.
Romo’s very likely to get his job back when he’s healthy, but … “I can’t imagine a scenario where Tony’s not our quarterback when he’s ready,” Jones said. “But things happen. You know that. You know what happened to Bledsoe and Brady. [In 2001, Drew Bledsoe was kayoed with internal bleeding for most of the season. Unknown Tom Brady relieved and never gave back the job.) I’m sure Tony’s aware of that. But the reality is Tony’s going to come back for us and play great, we believe.”
What would have to happen for Prescott to stay under center? No one knows. Dallas doesn’t have a killer early slate (vs. Giants, at Washington, vs. Chicago, at San Francisco, vs. Cincinnati, at Green Bay), but you can’t sit here and say if they go 4-2 or 5-1 Romo wouldn’t get his job back. Put it this way: It’s highly likely Romo returns as the starter. But that probably shouldn’t be the question. Romo missed 12 games with the twice-fractured clavicle. He’ll miss up to six games this year with the back break. That would be 18 missed games in one-plus seasons. He’s 36. Romo’s at the point in his career—and has been so abused since mid-2013—that nothing is guaranteed, except again the backup quarterback is more important in Dallas than anywhere else in football.
Backups in Dallas are 1-13 in the past three years.
“It’s a different feel around here this time,” Jones said. “We like what we’ve got behind Tony now. This is still a gut punch. It hurts bad. But I can tell you this time we’re not going to be sitting around worrying when Tony gets back. We can’t say, ‘We need to go 3-3,’ or whatever, with Tony gone. The hell with that. We gotta have a game plan to beat the Giants, and to win every game without him.”
Prescott, of course, has been a godsend. A DUI arrest (he was later cleared) in March pushed him down draft boards, and he’s been the best quarterback by far in the NFL preseason—whatever that means. His 137.8 rating and .780 accuracy rate have blown away the Cowboys. In some ways, he’s almost been too perfect. This story from training camp reflects that: In an 11-on-11 period late in practice, the offense had 10 seconds left to score, and Prescott was the quarterback with the first unit. He passed to Dez Bryant, and Bryant was supposed to out of bounds immediately so the clock would stop or go to the ground so the offense could call a timeout. But Bryant tried to score instead, was stopped, and the clock ran out. Prescott ran to him and said words to this effect: We know you’re the best receiver in the world and you MIGHT score, but we can’t take that chance.You gotta use your head and get the clock stopped. That’s a rookie, talking to Dez Bryant. And Bryant, to his credit acknowledged Prescott was right. Prescott grew a lot in the eyes of the starting offense, and the coaches, that day.
What’ll happen now? Prescott wasn’t a great deep-ball thrower at Mississippi State, but he’ll have to do that some to keep the Giants honest opening day. In a way, this reminds me a bit of the Ravens in 2008. That year, rookie coach John Harbaugh wasn’t planning to start rookie quarterback Joe Flacco, but incumbents Kyle Boller and Troy Smith were hurt, and Flacco had to play. Baltimore had a great run game and an excellent offensive line, and reliable targets in Derrick Mason and Todd Heap. Dallas is similar with Bryant and Jason Witten. Where the teams differ is that Baltimore’s defense was terrific; the Dallas unit will struggle.
If you saw the Cowboys on Thursday night in Seattle, you saw a preview of how I think Garrett and offensive coordinator Scott Linehan will play: bashing Ezekiel Elliott even against the most physical of defenses—Elliot didn’t shy away from challenging Kam Chancellor in the hole—with Prescott relying inordinately on Witten for security. They don’t offer insurance for this kind of thing, as former Cowboy coach Bill Parcells once said, and this is a bad injury for Dallas. But that why this game’s so maddening to predict. Who can really say Prescott’s not ready? Watching the preseason so far, I’d take my chances opening day with Prescott over Jared Goff, the first pick in the draft. Jerry Jones likes great theater. Well, this isn’t the way he envisioned it, starting the 135th pick in the 2016 draft at quarterback. But he’s got the reality show of the year to open the new season.
After a rough tackle early in the preseason game at Seattle on Thursday night, Tony Romo, 36, got an MRI Friday and discovered he’d fractured a vertebra in his back. The starting job falls now to the 135th pick in the 2016 draft, Dak Prescott of Mississippi State. Romo faces the frustrating madness of a fourth straight year with a significant injury (disk surgery, two fracture back bones, fractured clavicle, re-fractured clavicle, and now a fractured vertebra), but did tell one club official over the weekend: “I’m gonna be in Dak’s back pocket to help him. We’re gonna win games with Dak.”
Brave talk. Hasn’t worked that way in the past in Dallas.
Two important points here, from Cowboys COO and director of player personnel Stephen Jones on Sunday afternoon:
• Dallas is all-in with Dak Prescott. Remember the draft-day obsession with Memphis quarterback Paxton Lynch? As I reported last spring, the Cowboys spent 67 minutes and 19 phone calls with at least nine teams trying to move up in the draft to take Lynch late in the first round. They failed, settling for Prescott late in the fourth round. Now? “I don’t think our guys would even consider trading Prescott for Lynch right now,” said Jones. “No, I know they wouldn’t. That’s how much they like Dak right now.” Look for Dallas to pick up a veteran body as a backup—but only to back up Prescott—as bodies get waived and traded in this week of roster movement.
Romo’s very likely to get his job back when he’s healthy, but … “I can’t imagine a scenario where Tony’s not our quarterback when he’s ready,” Jones said. “But things happen. You know that. You know what happened to Bledsoe and Brady. [In 2001, Drew Bledsoe was kayoed with internal bleeding for most of the season. Unknown Tom Brady relieved and never gave back the job.) I’m sure Tony’s aware of that. But the reality is Tony’s going to come back for us and play great, we believe.”
What would have to happen for Prescott to stay under center? No one knows. Dallas doesn’t have a killer early slate (vs. Giants, at Washington, vs. Chicago, at San Francisco, vs. Cincinnati, at Green Bay), but you can’t sit here and say if they go 4-2 or 5-1 Romo wouldn’t get his job back. Put it this way: It’s highly likely Romo returns as the starter. But that probably shouldn’t be the question. Romo missed 12 games with the twice-fractured clavicle. He’ll miss up to six games this year with the back break. That would be 18 missed games in one-plus seasons. He’s 36. Romo’s at the point in his career—and has been so abused since mid-2013—that nothing is guaranteed, except again the backup quarterback is more important in Dallas than anywhere else in football.
Backups in Dallas are 1-13 in the past three years.
“It’s a different feel around here this time,” Jones said. “We like what we’ve got behind Tony now. This is still a gut punch. It hurts bad. But I can tell you this time we’re not going to be sitting around worrying when Tony gets back. We can’t say, ‘We need to go 3-3,’ or whatever, with Tony gone. The hell with that. We gotta have a game plan to beat the Giants, and to win every game without him.”
Prescott, of course, has been a godsend. A DUI arrest (he was later cleared) in March pushed him down draft boards, and he’s been the best quarterback by far in the NFL preseason—whatever that means. His 137.8 rating and .780 accuracy rate have blown away the Cowboys. In some ways, he’s almost been too perfect. This story from training camp reflects that: In an 11-on-11 period late in practice, the offense had 10 seconds left to score, and Prescott was the quarterback with the first unit. He passed to Dez Bryant, and Bryant was supposed to out of bounds immediately so the clock would stop or go to the ground so the offense could call a timeout. But Bryant tried to score instead, was stopped, and the clock ran out. Prescott ran to him and said words to this effect: We know you’re the best receiver in the world and you MIGHT score, but we can’t take that chance.You gotta use your head and get the clock stopped. That’s a rookie, talking to Dez Bryant. And Bryant, to his credit acknowledged Prescott was right. Prescott grew a lot in the eyes of the starting offense, and the coaches, that day.
What’ll happen now? Prescott wasn’t a great deep-ball thrower at Mississippi State, but he’ll have to do that some to keep the Giants honest opening day. In a way, this reminds me a bit of the Ravens in 2008. That year, rookie coach John Harbaugh wasn’t planning to start rookie quarterback Joe Flacco, but incumbents Kyle Boller and Troy Smith were hurt, and Flacco had to play. Baltimore had a great run game and an excellent offensive line, and reliable targets in Derrick Mason and Todd Heap. Dallas is similar with Bryant and Jason Witten. Where the teams differ is that Baltimore’s defense was terrific; the Dallas unit will struggle.
If you saw the Cowboys on Thursday night in Seattle, you saw a preview of how I think Garrett and offensive coordinator Scott Linehan will play: bashing Ezekiel Elliott even against the most physical of defenses—Elliot didn’t shy away from challenging Kam Chancellor in the hole—with Prescott relying inordinately on Witten for security. They don’t offer insurance for this kind of thing, as former Cowboy coach Bill Parcells once said, and this is a bad injury for Dallas. But that why this game’s so maddening to predict. Who can really say Prescott’s not ready? Watching the preseason so far, I’d take my chances opening day with Prescott over Jared Goff, the first pick in the draft. Jerry Jones likes great theater. Well, this isn’t the way he envisioned it, starting the 135th pick in the 2016 draft at quarterback. But he’s got the reality show of the year to open the new season.
