It evidently all came down to a game of golf. Tony Romo is pretty good at that sport too and playing a recent game, Romo didnt’ like the way his back felt and thinking about the hits heading his way in a 2017 NFL football campaign, he decided the time had come to step away. Tony Romo is retiring from the NFL.
Have a career, @tonyromo! pic.twitter.com/9bRSC8i4Oe
— NFL (@NFL) April 4, 2017
Romo, according to the NFL Network, will be joining CBS as part of their No. 1 broadcast team alongside Jim Nantz and replacing Phil Simms. According to Ian Rapoport, Romo will also contribute on CBS’ golf coverage.
For salary cap reasons the Dallas Cowboys officially cut Romo Tuesday, allowing the Cowboys to spread the rest of his cap hit across the next three seasons. Romo retires as the All-Time Cowboys leader in passing yards (34,183), passing touchdowns (248) and passer rating (97.1).
With Romo’s decision, comes a few questions, like, what the hell are the Houston Texans going to do?
The Texans appeared all-in with landing Romo, whether it was from a trade or offering him the best possible landing spot as a free agent. After Tuesday, the Texans will probably still blow up Romo’s phone and try to talk him out of retiring and his CBS gig, but I don’t think it will work. He’s stepping away on his own terms after feeling a twinge of back pain while playing golf. The dude is scared of getting hit again. If he does come back, it’s not going to be this year.
Tony Romo's career player earnings: $127,422,458
— Gil Brandt (@Gil_Brandt) April 4, 2017
In my last mock draft I had the Texans taking DeShone Kizer going to Houston with the No. 25 pick. That’s probably a done deal at this point unless they decide they like Patrick Mahomes better. The Texans could also be working the phones for another blockbuster trade on draft day with the Jacksonville Jaguars or Tennessee Titans if the Cleveland Browns, San Francisco 49ers and Chicago Bears all pass on DeShaun Watson and Mitchell Trubisky like we all think they will.
Right now the Texans are looking at a QB depth chart of Tom Savage and Brandon Weedon and that should scare the ever-loving shit out of anyone with a rooting interest in the team. Of the available free agent options, Jay Cutler is easily the most viable if he even wants to continue playing football. After him, you have Robert Griffin III, Ryan Fitzpatrick and Austin Davis, in that order, as potential guys to add to the roster. You’re going to see other writers throw Colin Kaepernick’s name in there too, but you can forget that. I don’t see Kaepernick playing in the NFL this season.
Between 2006-2015, no @NFL QB had more 4th-quarter comeback than Tony Romo (24).
— Andrew Siciliano (@AndrewSiciliano) April 4, 2017
The next question is, what’s up with Phil Simms? From the outside it looked like Simms was pretty entrenched at CBS and even served as the executive producer for Inside the NFL. According to Forbes, CBS hasn’t even officially notified Simms. Would he be willing to go to CBS’ No. 2 team? Will they make him a desk analyst. Will he just quit? The irony of the whole situation is that Simms has been one of the biggest Tony Romo boosters in the NFL media over the last decade. Now Romo is taking his job.
I hear the Browns are prepared to absorb Phil Simms’s guaranteed salary if CBS will send them a draft pick.
— Bill Barnwell (@billbarnwell) April 4, 2017
The picture is clearer for the Denver Broncos, the other team realistically vying for Romo’s services. They still have Trevor Siemian and Paxton Lynch on the roster, with Lynch obviously being the “quarterback of the future.” There’s really no question that for the Broncos long-term, it would be better to roll with what they have, even though any type of title run is probably ridiculous this season.
Ultimately, the big loser in all this is the NFL. The league simply does not have enough legitimate NFL quarterbacks to lead its 32 teams and putting Romo on the Texans was an exciting prospect, not only for TV ratings, but for the big NFL story. There was a desire to see he guy succeed and get the playoff and Super Bowl monkey off his back. Now that’s never going to happen and the sport is poorer for it.
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