Romo leaving really crippled us. Garrett has to change or leave

[DandyDon52]

You're right, people who claim Romo was fragile, broken, etc are probably not doctors. Nor are the people who believe he was healthy and ready to go.

What we can do is take all the information available to use and try to come to a logical conclusion. I'll make the case for thinking he was fragile and broken and try to make a case for being healthy and ready to go. This is based upon information we know of.

Fragile and broken:

• Parcells would tell Romo he needed to get rid of the ball. He said Romo would be a snack back there with his frail body. Called him "liverwurst of rye"
• Romo's injury history from neck to waist - 3 broken collar bones, cyst removal, 3x broken ribs, bruised ribs, collapsed lung, compression fracture, transverse fracture, herniated disc
• In 2014, he began taking self sacks to protect himself and still suffered the transverse fracture. He later admitted he played with broken ribs while not being disclosed on the injury report. In the 3rd to last drive of the GB playoff game, Romo was thrown to the ground and could barely get back up. He struggled just handing the ball off to Murray the next 2 drives (thankfully Murray scored a TD). He was able to complete the next 2 series.
  
• Beginning in 2015 he was only able to take ~5-7 hits before another injury forced him out for half a season.
  
• After his last injury, he had an MRI and was deemed "healthy". Took him 4 weeks to get into shape to be able to practice
• While being healthy but undressed for a game, the sideline reporter indicated they had just spoken with Romo who claimed he was healthy enough to play, but the doctors are unsure if he could actually sustain a hit. I believe this was before the Eagles game coming off the bye week.
  
• When he was healthy he remained the back up.
• When the #1 seed was wrapped up and Dallas could have used the time to knock off any rust from the injury in the final 2 games, they only used him 1 series. Granted he looked great that 1 series, but he looked rusty coming off the injury in 2015 so he is not immune to rust.
  
• He decided to retire instead of play for another team.

Healthy and ready:

• He said he wanted to play
• He was cleared to play
• He looked great in his 1 drive when he did play

I'm not a doctor but based upon the available information I would say it is highly likely that Romo could still have been a great QB if QBs could wear red jerseys. Unfortunately, they are able to get hit and I think it is logical to believe Romo was injury prone. Factoring in his injury history with his base salary, I didn't want the Cowboys to gamble anymore that Romo could remain healthy and available to play. Whether Dak can be the next QB, whether we had to endure a 1-15 season with a scrub QB, it was time for the Cowboys to move on from Romo with this injury history and salary. If he took a big pay cut to where him being in street clothes wouldn't cripple the salary cap then I wouldn't mind him still being on the team.

Part of the problem with Tony was that the Jones boys always rushed him back into action too soon after he was injured.. Romo was not ready to play in the Carolina game and that's why the collarbone broke again.
the other injuries to his back could all be explained and part of that was due to guys being allowed to come free on him and taking some free hits but in 2016 he had plenty of rest and plenty of time to heal up because of dak, and I'm not saying that they shouldn't have been gearing up to move on from Romo , but they could have waited another year or so to do so and he might have taken a pay cut but I doubt they even considered that.
they saw a cheap new quarterback in that cheap being the keyword and decided to go with him.
I think Tony had another year or 2 left in him where he can play at a high level but that's all gone now it's all history.
Dak had a great rookie season,
But many have had 1 good season, then avg after that.

 

[DandyDon52]

If it wasn't for Dak we would have had 2 wasted seasons in a row waiting for Romo to get better. He was one hit away from another one. Why would anyone want to waste another season on a QB that can't stay on the field? I don't care what doctors say. They said Romo was healthy going into 2016. It was time to move on.

Because we had Dak it is that simple .
with DAK as the backup we had the perfect combination of two very good quarterbacks and they decided not to use it they threw away a great opportunity.

Look at Philly, they had great
Bkup in foles and that's the only way they got to the SB.
If Romo goes down, in comes
Dak, and they keep winning.
Now if dak goes down we
Have Cooper, who they've never played in real game.

 

[DFWJC]

as if this can't be posted for almost any QB that ever lived

shows your intent and where your heart is though
so duely noted

 

[Bleu Star]

There is NO shame in your game!

You already know.

 

[DallasEast]

as if this can't be posted for almost any QB that ever lived

shows your intent and where your heart is though
so duely noted

I had avoided watching the video until I saw your comment. I have only watched the first five minutes or so (at work right now). Hopefully the rest of the video does a better job of highlighting quarterback only mistakes. The first five minutes shows some Romo gaffes, like any quarterback, but the good examples were mixed in with tips, poor receiver routes, receivers not fighting for the ball, etc.

It is funny. I remember a couple of passes Brady and Foles threw up for grabs just last Sunday. Their receivers got position and manhandled their catches. The first few minutes of this video had at least one Romo pass like that and his receiver wimped out. Crazy stuff.

 

[JeffInDC]

I've been saying for years. Our team should scrap the Garrett playbook and start running those rub easy to execute rub routes. For someone who's played football for his entire life (Garrett) I can't understand why he can't change a play to compensate for a different type of player?

Romo was a rare breed. He was the reason why our offense was so successful. He would make the proper changes depending on the defense. Garrett is like the "siri" of coaches. All you get is the same ole' answers every time. Borrrrrring.

We need a change.

It's NOT that they need to scrap the playbook, it's that they need to enhance/redesign what they have. Anybody on here that is a coach or has coached at any level of football knows the importance of knowing when slight changes need to be made to your playbook - if your players change from year to year, shouldn't your ability to alter your playbook as well? Even the plays they run know could work with simple changes. Changes like putting Dez in motion and have him run his routes against an overmatched Safety or LB. Or adding wrinkles to Beasley's routes in the middle. It's NOT that hard.

 

[DFWJC]

I had avoided watching the video until I saw your comment. I have only watched the first five minutes or so (at work right now). Hopefully the rest of the video does a better job of highlighting quarterback only mistakes. The first five minutes shows some Romo gaffes, like any quarterback, but the good examples were mixed in with tips, poor receiver routes, receivers not fighting for the ball, etc.

It is funny. I remember a couple of passes Brady and Foles threw up for grabs just last Sunday. Their receivers got position and manhandled their catches. The first few minutes of this video had at least one Romo pass like that and his receiver wimped out. Crazy stuff.

Just for perspective.
In just one season, 2013, Brady threw THREE game-ending interceptions.
Romo--who some think did that often and who was certainly not as good as Brady--only had 2-3 of those in his entire career. If that.

The point being that if you throw enough, you're going to have bad things happen at times. His were just unbelievably exaggerated.

lol
That Bears game WAS ugly tough.

 

[Frozen700]

Oh, so Romo was brilliant and Dak and Jason are crap?
OK, matey, i must go now to ponder Romo's brilliancy at getting 2 first-round playoffs wins in 11 years and all those Super Bowl trophies.
Actually, Romo didn't do squat except fatten his wallet. And the Romonians cheered on ....

Hey I felt the same way at one point, it took him getting hurt and leaving for me to realize he was the best thing for this team

 

[khiladi]

Tean should have given Romo at least a year with Elliott, whom they drafted him for anyways.. His last year he was saddled with Randle as the starting RB in his two games..

 

[GimmeTheBall!]

Hey I felt the same way at one point, it took him getting hurt and leaving for me to realize he was the best thing for this team

Blimey! Curry bombs!
How was Romo, the 2-4 playoffs, wonder, "the best thing for team"?

 

[OmerV]

Tean should have given Romo at least a year with Elliott, whom they drafted him for anyways.. His last year he was saddled with Randle as the starting RB in his two games..

They didn't draft Elliott for Romo, they drafted Elliott because they wanted the Cowboys to be a balanced offense with a strong run game on top of the strong passing game. Yes, that helped Romo, but it wasn't for Romo. It would help any QB.

 

[ConstantReboot]

It's NOT that they need to scrap the playbook, it's that they need to enhance/redesign what they have. Anybody on here that is a coach or has coached at any level of football knows the importance of knowing when slight changes need to be made to your playbook - if your players change from year to year, shouldn't your ability to alter your playbook as well? Even the plays they run know could work with simple changes. Changes like putting Dez in motion and have him run his routes against an overmatched Safety or LB. Or adding wrinkles to Beasley's routes in the middle. It's NOT that hard.

I agree with you. But thats the problem with the playbook. I believe its the reason why our plays don't change. Its because the basic principles really don't apply to the new styles of offenses and that its too rigid and uniform. Thus maybe its just better to scrap it and start a new.

The playbook hasn't changed for almost a decade. Nothing has changed and it seems that the more we keep going this path the longer it will take for us to make changes. Thus scraping the playbook might be the best choice.