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How to maximize Tony Romo's time left
February, 23, 2015
By Todd Archer | ESPNDallas.com
IRVING, Texas -- Come sit down inside the Dallas Cowboys' luxury bus.
Go past the leather couches on either side of the hardwood-floor aisle. Make sure you get a good look at one of the three televisions on the walls. Take a look around at the small photos capturing some of the Cowboys’ greatest players.
Grab the seat behind the table, next to the leather swivel chair. That one is for Jerry Jones.
The owner and general manager is in a sharing mood.
“You’ll appreciate this story,” Jones said.
On the night before Super Bowl XLIX in Phoenix, Tony Romo was in the swivel chair. Jones was in your seat. Across the aisle was Stephen Jones. Jason Witten might have been there, too. Jason Garrett was around the conversation as well.
“Wee hours of the morning,” Jones said, after the NFL Honors program and another Super Bowl party.
Romo looked at Jones.
“Jerry, see Stephen, he’s got himself about 25-30 years of this ahead. Jason, coach, maybe something similar to that,” Jones remembers Romo saying. “Me, I’m three to five. You’re three to five. We got to stick together. It’s now for us.”
Jones laughs after telling the story.
“He said we got to stick together because these guys are not on the same timeframe,” Jones said. “It’s now for us.”
And that’s the balance the Cowboys face this offseason. Now and the future.
Romo turns 35 in April. He is coming off his best season, leading the NFL in completion percentage and passer rating. He had 34 touchdown passes and nine interceptions. He fulfilled the promise he made in training camp that his best years were ahead of him.
But how long can Romo play at such a high level? Two years? Three? That three- to five-year range? He has had two back surgeries. He played through two transverse process fractures in 2014. He played through torn rib cartilage.
As the Cowboys look at a second potential window of Super Bowl contention in Romo’s career, there is a natural urge to go “all-in,” salary cap be damned. The Cowboys went through quarterbacks the way McDonald’s goes through Big Macs after Troy Aikman retired and they were mostly mediocre and had three straight 5-11 seasons.
When you have a high-level veteran quarterback, it’s about maximizing every year. It’s about taking Romo-friendly even further.
The Cowboys are already willing to expend a $13 million cap figure on wide receiver Dez Bryant with the franchise tag. They want to keep DeMarco Murray, and Jones said he has “flexibility” in the parameters of what it would take to keep the NFL’s leading rusher.
The Cowboys met with Murray’s agent, Bill Johnson, at the combine and will continue dialogue until free agency begins, but the discussions can’t be considered serious or far along at this point. There is a dance that plays out with neither side wanting to show their hand.
Garrett has made it clear he wants Murray back because of what he means to the team. Jones said he wants Murray to spend his career with the Cowboys. There is no doubt everybody at Valley Ranch wants Murray back, but the question is the price.
“Murray is a now decision,” Jones said. “It has everything to do with that kind of thinking. That’s pro-Murray, by the way.”
They also have to keep right tackles Doug Free or Jermey Parnell, as well as a number of other decisions. They need a lot of help on defense, and there could be some quality pass-rushers available.
But it would require the Cowboys to extend themselves against the salary cap now and in the future with no guarantee of success.
“It’s degree,” Jones said. “We aren’t rebuilding by any stretch of the imagination. I say that because that’s what we’re emphatically not doing. We’re trying to improve what we have done last year and to some degree years before. But bottom line is when you talk now, then you could very well spend some money that you’ll be paying in the future.”
Jones' comments almost contradict those of Stephen Jones, the Cowboys’ executive vice president and keeper of the salary cap. On several occasions from the NFL scouting combine, he said teams don’t get equal return on the money they have to pay to acquire the top players on the market.
“I’m still a big believer that the answer is not in free agency,” Stephen Jones said.
It all seems to be setting up for some pushback as the Cowboys make their decisions over the next few weeks and months. Last spring Jerry Jones made no secret of his crush on Johnny Manziel. He wanted to take the Texas A&M quarterback, but faced pushback and ultimately the Cowboys took Zack Martin with the 16th pick.
Martin became the first Cowboys rookie to earn All-Pro honors since 1969 and is a cornerstone piece.
Jerry Jones said the what-to-do discussions have been “real healthy,” so far.
“But at the end of the day, if we do have an issue, the nudge which way will be weighted,” Jones said. “Let’s put it like that.”
Does that mean Romo and Jerry and their three- to five-year window will win out?
“Certainly Tony’s excellence, the way he played this year, that coupled [with] where he is with his career gives us every reason to make our decisions based upon now,” Jones said. “I weight it that way. They don’t have to be exclusive of each other, now or in the future, because the future is really just a few more years on out when you’re making personnel decisions.”
February, 23, 2015
By Todd Archer | ESPNDallas.com
IRVING, Texas -- Come sit down inside the Dallas Cowboys' luxury bus.
Go past the leather couches on either side of the hardwood-floor aisle. Make sure you get a good look at one of the three televisions on the walls. Take a look around at the small photos capturing some of the Cowboys’ greatest players.
Grab the seat behind the table, next to the leather swivel chair. That one is for Jerry Jones.
The owner and general manager is in a sharing mood.
“You’ll appreciate this story,” Jones said.
On the night before Super Bowl XLIX in Phoenix, Tony Romo was in the swivel chair. Jones was in your seat. Across the aisle was Stephen Jones. Jason Witten might have been there, too. Jason Garrett was around the conversation as well.
“Wee hours of the morning,” Jones said, after the NFL Honors program and another Super Bowl party.
Romo looked at Jones.
“Jerry, see Stephen, he’s got himself about 25-30 years of this ahead. Jason, coach, maybe something similar to that,” Jones remembers Romo saying. “Me, I’m three to five. You’re three to five. We got to stick together. It’s now for us.”
Jones laughs after telling the story.
“He said we got to stick together because these guys are not on the same timeframe,” Jones said. “It’s now for us.”
And that’s the balance the Cowboys face this offseason. Now and the future.
Romo turns 35 in April. He is coming off his best season, leading the NFL in completion percentage and passer rating. He had 34 touchdown passes and nine interceptions. He fulfilled the promise he made in training camp that his best years were ahead of him.
But how long can Romo play at such a high level? Two years? Three? That three- to five-year range? He has had two back surgeries. He played through two transverse process fractures in 2014. He played through torn rib cartilage.
As the Cowboys look at a second potential window of Super Bowl contention in Romo’s career, there is a natural urge to go “all-in,” salary cap be damned. The Cowboys went through quarterbacks the way McDonald’s goes through Big Macs after Troy Aikman retired and they were mostly mediocre and had three straight 5-11 seasons.
When you have a high-level veteran quarterback, it’s about maximizing every year. It’s about taking Romo-friendly even further.
The Cowboys are already willing to expend a $13 million cap figure on wide receiver Dez Bryant with the franchise tag. They want to keep DeMarco Murray, and Jones said he has “flexibility” in the parameters of what it would take to keep the NFL’s leading rusher.
The Cowboys met with Murray’s agent, Bill Johnson, at the combine and will continue dialogue until free agency begins, but the discussions can’t be considered serious or far along at this point. There is a dance that plays out with neither side wanting to show their hand.
Garrett has made it clear he wants Murray back because of what he means to the team. Jones said he wants Murray to spend his career with the Cowboys. There is no doubt everybody at Valley Ranch wants Murray back, but the question is the price.
“Murray is a now decision,” Jones said. “It has everything to do with that kind of thinking. That’s pro-Murray, by the way.”
They also have to keep right tackles Doug Free or Jermey Parnell, as well as a number of other decisions. They need a lot of help on defense, and there could be some quality pass-rushers available.
But it would require the Cowboys to extend themselves against the salary cap now and in the future with no guarantee of success.
“It’s degree,” Jones said. “We aren’t rebuilding by any stretch of the imagination. I say that because that’s what we’re emphatically not doing. We’re trying to improve what we have done last year and to some degree years before. But bottom line is when you talk now, then you could very well spend some money that you’ll be paying in the future.”
Jones' comments almost contradict those of Stephen Jones, the Cowboys’ executive vice president and keeper of the salary cap. On several occasions from the NFL scouting combine, he said teams don’t get equal return on the money they have to pay to acquire the top players on the market.
“I’m still a big believer that the answer is not in free agency,” Stephen Jones said.
It all seems to be setting up for some pushback as the Cowboys make their decisions over the next few weeks and months. Last spring Jerry Jones made no secret of his crush on Johnny Manziel. He wanted to take the Texas A&M quarterback, but faced pushback and ultimately the Cowboys took Zack Martin with the 16th pick.
Martin became the first Cowboys rookie to earn All-Pro honors since 1969 and is a cornerstone piece.
Jerry Jones said the what-to-do discussions have been “real healthy,” so far.
“But at the end of the day, if we do have an issue, the nudge which way will be weighted,” Jones said. “Let’s put it like that.”
Does that mean Romo and Jerry and their three- to five-year window will win out?
“Certainly Tony’s excellence, the way he played this year, that coupled [with] where he is with his career gives us every reason to make our decisions based upon now,” Jones said. “I weight it that way. They don’t have to be exclusive of each other, now or in the future, because the future is really just a few more years on out when you’re making personnel decisions.”