Tony Romo’s days with the Cowboys have come to an end. ADVERTISING Tony Romo’s days with the Cowboys have come to an end. A move that has been expected for months is set to become official when the club will
Tony Romo’s days with the Cowboys have come to an end.
A move that has been expected for months is set to become official when the club will release the veteran quarterback.
If the cut takes effect Thursday, the start of NFL free agency, the decision frees up $5.1 million in cap space for the 2017 season, money that can be spent immediately on veterans the Cowboys hope to retain on the defensive side of the ball. If Romo is instead designated as a June 1 cut, that allows Romo to sign with another team immediately and creates $14 million in cap space for the club to use beginning on June 2.
While no surprise, the parting is significant. Romo was the team’s starting quarterback for nearly 10 years, a run that ended due to injury and the success the team enjoyed during his absence with rookie Dak Prescott.
It cost the franchise $19.6 million to sever ties with Romo. He was scheduled to have a salary cap hit of $24.7 million for this season, which is why the Cowboys will have $5.1 million to spend if the cut takes effect immediately. If he is designated to be cut in June, the club will split that $24.7 million over two seasons. He will count $10.7 million against the cap in 2017 and $8.9 million next season.
Romo leaves as the most prolific quarterback in franchise history, throwing for 34,183 yards. He holds a majority of the club’s career records, including scoring passes (248), games with a passer rating of 100 or greater (66), 300-yard games (46), games with three or more touchdowns (40), 20-plus touchdown seasons (seven) and 400-yard games (five). He has completed 2,829 of 4,335 passes to rank second in both categories.
Only two players in NFL history — Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers and New England’s Tom Brady — boast a career quarterback rating higher than Romo’s 97.1. He led the Cowboys to a 12-4 record and wild-card playoff win over Detroit in his last full season as a starter.
These gaudy statistics are tempered by a lack of postseason success. Romo has presided over only two playoff wins in six attempts and has never gotten the Cowboys past the second round of the playoffs.
Romo, an undrafted rookie out of Eastern Illinois, spent a three-year apprenticeship with the Cowboys before every throwing a regular season pass. He took over as the starter for veteran Drew Bledsoe in the second half of a game against the New York Giants in October of ‘06 and never looked back until he was replaced by Prescott.
Romo missed a career-high 12 games in ‘15 after fracturing his clavicle. Twice. The quarterback had a cyst removed from his back in the spring of ‘13 and missed the team’s offseason program. Before the year was done he underwent surgery for a herniated disk, missing the final game of the regular season against Philadelphia when the team had a chance to win the division.
In November of ‘14 he missed a game after suffering a fracture of the transverse process in his back.
The bottom line: Romo, who turns 37 next month, has played in just five games the past two seasons. He has failed to finish three of the last five games he’s started, including the preseason game in August against Seattle when he suffered an L1 compression fracture in his back, opening the door for Prescott’s meteoric rise.
Club officials anticipated that Romo would return to the starting lineup when healthy. But Prescott performed at such a high level and the team was so successful it never happened.
The veteran quarterback gave what amounted to a concession speech in the days leading up to the team’s game against Baltimore in mid-November. Romo read a statement that detailed his frustrations, pledged support to his heir apparent and elevated the importance of team over ego.
Romo’s remarks pointedly sidestepped the long-term implications of the franchise’s shift to Prescott. He walked a fine and often poignant line, saying his desire to compete still burned bright while making it clear he would not be a distraction in the final weeks and months as this team made its playoff push.
“He’s earned the right to be our quarterback,” Romo said of Prescott on that day.
He then paused, as he did at several other points during a statement that lasted just under five minutes.
“As hard as that is for me to say, he’s earned that right,” Romo continued. “He’s guided our team to an 8-1 record and that’s hard to do.”
Now, Romo has been given the chance to end his career somewhere else.
