Cowboys Want Tony Romo Long Term
With the Dallas Cowboys stuck in a pit of mediocrity in recent years, is Tony Romo at quarterback still the answer? The organization sure thinks so.
Dallas Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones (son of Jerry Jones) announced this week that the team wants to pursue a long term contract extension with Romo and said he is the key piece to winning a Super Bowl in the future.
“Tony is a key piece of what we’re about going forward,” Jones said Tuesday, via ESPN.com. “We’re certainly going to be looking at his situation (in) time.
“We’ve historically (extended contracts) with quarterbacks for the Dallas Cowboys ahead of time. We did it with Troy (Aikman) and we certainly want to look at that with Tony so we can all move forward in terms of how we want to play around our salary cap with our team. Tony is the key piece in terms of how your cap is represented.”
The extension would help Dallas get under the $121 million salary cap by the March 12 deadline by lowering Romo’s cap and spreading his salary at an even $12 million per year for the next three to five years. Money wise the move makes sense, but what about football wise?
On paper, Romo is coming off one of the best seasons of his career, so since he is entering the last year of his contract, it makes some sense that the teams wants to secure him now. He threw for a career-high 4,903 yards and tossed 28 touchdowns in 2012. However, if you look a little closer, his numbers aren’t all that impressive. He also attempted 648 throws, which was 98 more than his previous career-high for a season. He also threw 19 interceptions, which more than hurt his squad.
The inflated numbers were due to the fact that Dallas was without a running game for the entire season. In fact, the Cowboys ended 2012 with the second worst rushing offense in the league. So, is Romo really the key here? Because it seems like for the Cowboys to be successful, they need to establish a running game.
As we all know, leadership in the organization has been as stubborn as they come. The Jerry Jones of 10 or 15 years ago would have cleaned house after all these disappointing seasons, but he seems content to stick by coach Jason Garrett and Romo despite the poor results. With the Redskins and Eagles seemingly on the rise, competing in the NFC East may take some change.
Some Cowboys fans may be excited by the news that Romo is going to be around long term, but I wouldn’t count on them contending for a Super Bowl until the offensive dynamics change and until ownership learns how to adapt.
