http://sportsday.dallasnews.com/dal...ga-holdup-blinks-first-danger-dragging-things Spoiler: The Tony Romo saga: What's the holdup? Who blinks first? The danger in dragging things out One week ago, Tony Romo posted a video from the workout room in his home as Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are a-Changin'' played in the background. For some, the times aren't changing quickly enough. We're now eight days deep into free agency and you've probably picked up on the fact that Romo hasn't gone anywhere. The veteran quarterback remains on the Cowboys' roster. Chances are he'll be there when next week begins. What gives? Why has the mutual parting that everyone knows is coming not taken place? Simple. The Cowboys are trying to make Houston, and to a lesser extent Denver, sweat just enough to consider a trade. Time is the only leverage available to Dallas. Observers question the wisdom of this strategy. The Texans and Broncos know the Cowboys have no intention of keeping a backup quarterback that counts $24.7 million against the salary cap. They know owner Jerry Jones has too much affection and respect for Romo to hold onto him for so long that the market dries up and the quarterback has no place to turn. All this is true. It's also true that reports out of Houston and Denver consistently state those clubs will not trade for Romo but have an interest once he becomes a free agent. If the Texans and Broncos intend to pursue Romo on the open market, they have interest in him now. The Cowboys hope to fans those flames by making both teams wait. They want to get one team to blink. Houston is the most likely candidate. This is a team that has won the AFC South in four of the past six seasons yet been unable to advance past the divisional round of the playoffs due to inferior quarterback play. Tom Savage is the starting quarterback at the moment. Brandon Weeden is his backup. Neither inspires confidence that the position is in good hands. What is the outlook for the Texans if they don't land Romo? Do they chase Colin Kaepernick in free agency? He doesn't appear to be a good fit. Jay Cutler? Ryan Fitzpatrick? Chase Daniel? What will Houston do, ignore free agency and depend on the draft? The top prospects will be gone when they pick. The Texans could cross their fingers and hope to pick up a quarterback in the fourth round who can step in and start immediately, but how often does that happen? That brings us, and the Texans, back to Romo. An argument can be made they are desperate for a quarterback of his ability. Can they risk losing Romo to the Broncos once he gets to the free agent market? Is a conditional late-round pick that improves a round or two based on Romo's performance too much to pay for a player of Romo's proven upside? No. The Cowboys want the Texans to think long and hard about how much they like Romo and how bleak the 2017 season looks if they don't get him. The Broncos aren't desperate with Trevor Siemian and Paxton Lynch. But Romo is an upgrade that would allow Denver to turn Siemian into a trade asset and give Lynch more time to develop. Another hurdle is that neither team wants to assume Romo's contract. The preference is to wait until he's a free agent, slice his base salary of $14 million in half and allow him to earn in the high teens through a series of play-time and performance incentives. But keep this in mind: The Cowboys won't trade Romo to a team where he doesn't want to go. If the Texans or Broncos express an interest, they would be given permission to work out a deal with the quarterback that will satisfy both sides. Can Romo throw a wrench in this by refusing to renegotiate his deal? Sure. There are many who maintain that's exactly what he should do to force his release and strike the best deal for himself on the open market. It hasn't come to that yet. The most likely scenario is that Romo will be released. That doesn't make the Cowboys unreasonable to play this out. The delay doesn't hurt the quarterback's chances to land where he wants unless it drags on too long and the Texans panic and sign a lesser option on the current market. Tony Romo will be with another team soon. It just won't be as soon as most predicted.
Ironically, all these theories are actually back-firing and inadvertently giving the Texans enough media attention, while painting the Dallas Cowboys owner as a paranoid guy who is actually threatened by a dinky former exapansion team that has little to zero following outside of the Houston city limits.
The longer this drags out, the worse it looks for the Cowboys. It just hammers home the idea that they are worried about remaining the 2nd best NFL team in Texas. If they were confident in their own team they'd just make the necessary moves and not look back.
Who cares? What fans perceive as a team's perception has exactly zero/point/zero relevance - like Jerry Jones trying to extract a day 4 draft pick for his QB could possibly have any impact on a worldwide brand worth billions that annually plays the NFL's most visible schedule. OK. Sure. NO ONE looks bad here because "looking" has no positive or negative value in sports.
Agree with this. "looking bad" in this context amounts to snarky media comments and fans complaining on message boards. Once whatever happens is done, the story is over. It impacts absolutely nothing.
Who cares? Well, Jerry Jones apparently. You say that the Cowboys remaining the 2nd best NFL team in Texas won't hurt their brand, but clearly the Cowboys owner disagrees or he wouldn't be worried about it.
.....unless the Texans go on to do well with Romo and the Cowboys are one and done in the playoffs again.....or even worse, they miss the playoffs altogether next season.
The media articles that consistently overhype the Cowboys every time they put together a few wins in a season has been just about the biggest thing they've had going for them over the last 20 years. That's not something they want to lose.....as indicated by Jerry Jones' actions. He doesn't want the media to realize that the Cowboys are and have been playing second fiddle to the Texans for the past several years. You put Romo on the Texans and the Texans do better than the Cowboys and that's the only narrative going forward.
Only in bobby's world are the Cowboys second fiddle to the Texans... Since 2014: Cowboys 29-19; 1-0 H2H; 2 division titles; 2 double-digit win seasons; 15 prime time games (maximum allowed by the NFL); appeared in five of the NFL's 6 highest-rated regular season games last year, including the top 3. Texans 27-21; 0-1 H2H; 2 division titles; 0 double-digit win seasons; 10 prime time games; appeared in zero of the NFL's 10 highest-rated regular season games last year.
NAILED ME! Man....... such a hard bust. 1-2, Mensa - same as the Texans. Now here's a question for you: how many 30-0 playoff shellackings led by your favorite player of all-time, Brian Hoyer, have Cowboy fans enjoyed since 2014? Cowboys two losses are by a combined 8 points; the Texans? 48. But, yes, the Cowboys are obviously second fiddle.
If that were the case, we would have kept Brock as a backup OR used the money we saved on him to do SOMETHING in the FA market.
Texans have won 4 of the last 6 division titles. They have won three playoff games in that span. The cowboys are not in the same area code over the last half decade or so. The Texans are compared to a completely different set of teams at this point. The cowboys are down into the chargers, lions, dolphins group. We, as Texans fans, would rather not fall back into that group.
Meh... Texans have been consistently playoff contenders but never title contenders. Cowboys have been up and down, but when they are up they've been title contenders. Neither team should feel all that special based on very recent returns.
This.... and the fact that for the Texans to have any sort of relevance on a national stage that actually comes close to what the Cowboys have... it's basically a SB appearance or nothing.
