Darren Woodson: Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo could have career year in 2016

Darren Woodson: Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo could have career year in 2016

By SportsDayDFW.com

In response to Jason Witten's comments that Tony Romo is trying to be better than he has ever been before, former Cowboy Darren Woodson says he's buying what the Cowboys tight end is selling.

That is not an overreaction. The one thing about the Cowboys right now, they all know the chips are all in on this offense. They brought in Ezekiel Elliott, they want to run the ball consistently. Dez Bryant is going to have some one-on-one opportunities on the outside. I look to see Romo throw the ball down the field, make big plays for this offense. I think this may be his best... and he's biting at the bit, he's been wanting to get back on the field since what happened last year. I think this will be one of his best seasons.

The Cowboys drafted Dak Prescott in the fourth round of this year's draft, hoping the Mississippi State quarterback could end up being Romo's successor in a few years. No one is expecting Prescott to be ready to contribute in 2016, though, so the Cowboys are still putting all of their hopes in Romo being able to stay healthy.

For that reason, former NFL linebacker Tedy Bruschi wasn't so optimistic about Romo's 2016:

He's breaking down. Tony Romo is breaking down. Why he wants to come back strong is because he's missed the field so many times. Those hits that he's taking aren't even the most vicious of hits, Darren. These guys are just landing on him, placing him on the ground and his collar bone is snapping. Sometimes in your career, your body just sometimes breaks. The bones, the ligaments, the muscles.

Before the draft, SportsDay's Rick Gosselin criticized the Cowboys for not taking Romo's injury history seriously enough moving into next season.

Romo is 36 this season. And he's had health issues. Maybe he can finally take the Cowboys to a Super Bowl as both Brady and Manning have done at an advanced age. But the Cowboys need a young arm developing in the queue if and when the time comes for him to play. It's time to start thinking about life after Romo -- something the Cowboys failed to do when Aikman was taking their snaps. And he was done at the age of 34.

Iamtdg said:

For that reason, former NFL linebacker Tedy Bruschi wasn't so optimistic about Romo's 2016:

He's breaking down. Tony Romo is breaking down. Why he wants to come back strong is because he's missed the field so many times.

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Romo wants a ring. It has nothing to do with missing games due to injury.

He knows that to be included in a conversation about great QB's, you have to have a ring.

Sure hope they learned their lesson in 14 though. Ride that running game and let Romo make plays to complement...don't put the game on his shoulders or collar.

mcnuttz said:

Sure hope they learned their lesson in 14 though. Ride that running game and let Romo make plays to complement...don't put the game on his shoulders or collar.

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Seriously. No QB in the league is asked to do so much. Last I checked Brady and Manning still had good defenses. Outside of 2007, even GB and New Orleans have been superior defensively to what Romo has played with.

ravidubey said:

Seriously. No QB in the league is asked to do so much. Last I checked Brady and Manning still had good defenses. Outside of 2007, even GB and New Orleans have been superior defensively to what Romo has played with.

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Brees has been stuck spinning his wheels in New Orleans for the last several years, for the exact same reason. Put an all star QB on a bad team, and at best you get gaudy numbers.

townsend said:

Brees has been stuck spinning his wheels in New Orleans for the last several years, for the exact same reason. Put an all star QB on a bad team, and at best you get gaudy numbers.

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And at least Payton commits to the running game year after year.

I watched Joseph Randle starting for us and could only shake my head in disgust.

ravidubey said:

Seriously. No QB in the league is asked to do so much. Last I checked Brady and Manning still had good defenses. Outside of 2007, even GB and New Orleans have been superior defensively to what Romo has played with.

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That is not true GB and NO have had some very bad defenses over that time.

Jiggyfly said:

That is not true GB and NO have had some very bad defenses over that time.

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Not as consistently flawed, average, and plain bad as the Cowboys' has been at times. The 2013 defense was one of the worst I've ever seen. 2007-2015... good, average, good, bad, worse, worst, below average, bad.

No way in Hell you can say that about the Pack and Saints over that long a stretch. Lately I agree the Saints have been poor, but Hell, join the club.

Then there's been the outrageous pass/run ratios in most years outside of 2014.

The only game from a team I can recall in recent years having a P/R ratio as poor as the Cowboys had vs GB in 2013 was the Patriots in the 2007-2008 Superbowl. And they didn't have a back averaging 7 YPC.

For once I'd love to see Romo playing behind a stout defense and balanced offense. Just. Once.

Jiggyfly said:

That is not true GB and NO have had some very bad defenses over that time.

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And they didn't win a SB in any of those years, they had seasons very similar to Romo.

ravidubey said:

And at least Payton commits to the running game year after year.

I watched Joseph Randle starting for us and could only shake my head in disgust.

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Sean Payton doesn't commit to the running game as much as he should. Brees is first or second in pass attempts every year, New Orleans was 20th in rushing attempts last year. With the resources they've put into that OL they should be able to run it a lot more and take some pressure off Brees.

Payton's whole approach doesn't work without consistent rush attempts. In their stronger years, I think you'll find their offense to have beeen more balanced than you might think.

I wonder if Dallas will reduce the 5 wideout sets they like to use, in an attempt to protect Romo more.

ravidubey said:

Payton's whole approach doesn't work without consistent rush attempts. In their stronger years, I think you'll find their offense to have beeen more balanced than you might think.

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Well, recent years haven't been very strong and they haven't been consistently running the ball. Ingram has been injury prone, sure, but they haven't tried to have adequate running back depth either.

Clay_Allison said:

Well, recent years haven't been very strong and they haven't been consistently running the ball. Ingram has been injury prone, sure, but they haven't tried to have adequate running back depth either.

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Just last year they sunk a lot of money into the RB position with Ingram and Spiller.

Jiggyfly said:

Just last year they sunk a lot of money into the RB position with Ingram and Spiller.

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They got Spiller, but signing a gadget back as your main reserve doesn't say much for your commitment to the run.

Point was RB's and the running game are very important in Payton's offense when run properly.

After a point, if Brees is shouldering too much of the load the team fails. Same with Flacco and Rivers last year.

All I can say is barring injury, Romo is set up to have a great year and if RJ and his AC can't make it work they had both better be fired.