Offseason Thoughts: Cowboys should have sold high on Prescott

[G2]

Did you not see the game where rusty Tony Romo played against the Panthers and stunk up the joint? I love Tony Romo, but he was done.

Most of the Romoholics will reply with "What about the Philly game he led one drive for a TD?"

 

[Brooksey]

Romo may have had 2-3 years left..he took some unfortunate hits. When he did get healthy last year, he should have been starter for playoffs 100%.
What we did was dumb and now we'll never know

 

[Irvin88_4life]

I'm a huge Dak supporter, that being said I'm not against drafting another QB if the value is right. Matter of fact it might be what's best. If Dak becomes what I think then we have trade bait with the drafted QB.

I really like Baker Mayfield and I would take him at 19 if we can't get Roquan, Nelson, James, Vea or Edmunds.

Let Dak, Mayfield and Rush compete for starting job. Dak seems to play better with someone waiting to take his job anyways

 

[DallasEast]

I strongly believe the Cowboys should have sold high on Prescott last year.

When Romo was healthy and able to return last year, he should have been reinserted into the starting position and I believe we would have gone further in the playoffs as a result. More importantly though, this team that was built around Romo should have sold Prescott to the highest bidder while they could. You probably could have gotten two first round draft picks or a first and a second for Prescott last year.

That would have gone a long way towards infusing talent into the defense.

Instead, we ended up getting nothing for Romo except his dead money against the salary cap. Regardless of how you felt about Romo and Prescott, this was the worst possible outcome. The team went all in on Romo (drafting a running back 4th overall is going all in) and then decided to deviate because of some success Prescott had early in his career. Financially, that was a huge gamble, and while this story has yet to be written, I'm convinced it won't pay off.

I don't want to belabor this argument, we've discussed this ad nauseam, but you now have an offensive crisis where we're saying our receivers and offensive line aren't any good. The same units who in 2014 were among the best in the league and improving.

The offense is extremely cap heavy and isn't nearly as productive as it needs to be (14th in the NFL). Many people will blame the suspension and injury to Smith. So, we're now wholly reliant on two players being healthy and available in order for this team to operate (Elliott and Smith).

Elliott is a running back and is not likely to stay healthy for the duration of his time with the Cowboys. Smith and his back will ONLY get worse. Now we're in a position where we're going to have to re-sign Zach Martin and the offense will become even more salary cap heavy...

Is Prescott going to turn into Brees overnight? If your answer is no, you have to realize this front office needs to make some hard decisions and quickly. Even with improvement, if he can't carry an offense minus a few star players, you can't expect to build around him and have a stout defense.

I think this defense has a lot of potential, but the timing hasn't exactly been perfect. Rather than putting all of our eggs in one basket with Lawrence and Irving, I think it would be prudent to instead focus on rebuilding the defensive line through the draft, similar to what we did with the secondary. Money should be spent on highly reliable free agents. The front seven should be the primary focus on this draft.

Depending on what it would cost to trade for and sign Earl Thomas, I would take a serious look at getting him and moving Jones back to corner. Under Richards, our secondary could become a legitimate unit in the NFL.

I doubt any franchise would have traded away a prospect like Prescott after what he demonstrated in his rookie season. However, you are correct that Romo should have been reinserted into the lineup when healthy.

Addendum: Prescott would have been reinserted automatically into the starting role after Romo was immediately paralyzed after handing off to Elliott on the first play yada yada yada for those always deadset against Romo coming back period--which, ironically, is the exact same sentiment shared with their Satan (Jerry Jones) and Little Nicky (Jason Garrett).

 

[Irvin88_4life]

Romo may have had 2-3 years left..he took some unfortunate hits. When he did get healthy last year, he should have been starter for playoffs 100%.
What we did was dumb and now we'll never know

Romo wouldn't have won that playoff game. Dak played a better game then Romo ever did as a starter in the playoffs.

What was fun was holding players out week 16 and 17. Hence the reason they started slow

 

[CowboysRule]

I already said he was not done in terms of ability at all. His body had, however, completely and utterly shut down (by NFL playing standards). Playing one drive in a meaningless game without taking any hits does not change that.

He had gone 2 seasons without finishing 2 games in a row without injury. It had become nearly irresponsible to put all of our eggs in his basket knowing that he wasn't going to be on the field a significant amount of the time.

Romo was an elite QB but his body had given up on him by 2016. Any argument to the contrary is simply nostalgic and unrealistic, IMO.

Romo broke his collarbone. The same injury he had in the past. The same injury Aaron Rodgers has also had multiple times. He came back too soon from that and was injured again. I call that one injury. Everyone says his body had broken down, but no one knows for sure. Some people have runs of bad luck with injuries and then they go seasons without problems. Bottom line, I would've liked to have found out if he could still play. Even if he gets hurt you still have Dak there who has shown he can at least be serviceable.

 

[Mr Cowboy]

Romo was 100 times the QB that Dak ever will be.

But his body couldn't hold up anymore. They should have given it back to him last year though, no doubt. The warning signs of Dak's limitations were already apparent.

You're right, he's only been gone one year and I already miss all that playoff success, and those SB victories.........

You can bring in Wentz, Goff, or Carr to Dallas tomorrow, and they will not look any better with Garrett and his Jr. High offense. If you watched the SB, you'll understand how coaching makes a big difference in the NFL.

 

[Swagger]

I said the same as the opening poster and actually stated the same on another cowboys Forum at the time, the post is 100% spot on.

We could have got something stupid like 2 first round picks for the next two seasons or even more - if so, then it almost has nothing to do with Romo as the whole point would have been to draft an elite potential QB with enough in reserve for another quality player in the forthcoming draft.

Jesus wept if people cannot see the wool from the trees with Prescott, he does not throw the ball well enough to win a Superbowl unless carried to it by the defense like Trent Dilfer which is highly unlikely.

Last week I said Nick Foles is a far better QB than Prescott and he proved it yesterday. People are in cloud cookoo land if they think Prescott would have made those countless third down conversions and so many difficult throws into tight windows. It would have been pick city and the Patriots would have had a blow out win.

We are pretty stumped as the Eagles roster is set to be strong for at least another 2-3 seasons (and fair play to them).

 

[GenoT]

I don't want to belabor this argument...

But nevertheless...

 

[Swagger]

The front office and ginger lad backed the wrong horse.

 

[DallasEast]

Romo broke his collarbone. The same injury he had in the past. The same injury Aaron Rodgers has also had multiple times. He came back too soon from that and was injured again. I call that one injury. Everyone says his body had broken down, but no one knows for sure. Some people have runs of bad luck with injuries and then they go seasons without problems. Bottom line, I would've liked to have found out if he could still play. Even if he gets hurt you still have Dak there who has shown he can at least be serviceable.

[Bold]Good luck having anyone acknowledge that indisputable fact. Very few could not care less about that option or Romo for that matter.

 

[DFWJC]

We'll have a much better idea of what we have with Dak after this season.
I'm willing to give him that at the very least

 

[Swagger]

The Eagles also absolutely BATTERED us last season and they had a poor first half by their standards!!! They was a huge gulf between the two sides starting at QB.

 

[erod]

We'll have a much better idea of what we have with Dak after this season.
I'm willing to give him that at the very least

I'm willing to do that, too, but I'm still drafting or signing somebody else.

 

[erod]

[Bold]Good luck having anyone acknowledge that indisputable fact. Very few could not care less about that option or Romo for that matter.

The Cowboys refused to allow Romo to compete for the starting spot last summer.

Ponder that.

 

[MrPeanutbutter]

You cannot sell high on a potential franchise quarterback. You lose that trade 100% of the time. By selling "high", you essentially say "Hey, we don't think this is a franchise quarterback" and you get no return.

 

[MrPeanutbutter]

The Cowboys refused to allow Romo to compete for the starting spot last summer.

Ponder that.

He drew no interest from anyone. Let that sink in.

 

[Swagger]

You cannot sell high on a potential franchise quarterback. You lose that trade 100% of the time. By selling "high", you essentially say "Hey, we don't think this is a franchise quarterback" and you get no return.

But why was he seen by those as a potential franchise QB?

I knew he wasn't all that at the time. His best attributes are his durability and use of his legs...

 

[Swagger]

He drew no interest from anyone. Let that sink in.

According to what I read, that isn't true and yeah I'm sure those teams that passed up on him are now regretting it!

 

[erod]

He drew no interest from anyone. Let that sink in.

Not true in the least. Denver, Houston, and others were interested. He just didn't want to go there, and Jerry dang sure didn't want him in Houston. (I think money changed hands on that.)

Romo covered up the massive holes in the franchise for as long as his body could.