Gryphon
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by Nextyearfordaboyz from another sports forum:
Every single snap he has taken in his career has been executed to perfection. The ball was snapped into his hands, with nary a fumble on the center-quarterback exchange. His right foot would go back first, and without hesitation, he put his knee into the ground, allowing the clock to run out. Perfection? Sure. Experience? Not even comically close. It is certainly arguable whether this will be an intelligent decision, but it appears that the Dallas Cowboys are poised to give the inexperienced Tony Romo a chance to be the future of the franchise as soon as the 2007 season.
Tony Romo became a Dallas Cowboy as an undrafted rookie free agent from Eastern Illinois before the 2003 season. Now he certainly didn’t have top competition in college, but he was dominant at his level. He won the Walter Payton award, Division 1-AA’s counterpart to the Heisman trophy. He set school and conference records in career touchdowns with 85 (82 in just three years). He is a good sized (6’2” 219), athletic, fairly strong armed pocket passer: very similar to Phil Simms, who led a Bill Parcells New York Giants team to a couple of Super Bowls.
Romo, who is certainly in the mold of former Parcells’ quarterbacks, obviously impressed The Tuna immediately. During his first training camp, the battle for the starting quarterback position was between Quincy Carter and Chad Hutchinson. As such, Parcells needed to see both of those signal callers as often as possible, leaving only a few snaps to spare. Nearly all of those snaps, however, went to Romo, instead of the favorite to take the third string job, Clint Stoerner.
Two average preseasons and two perfect kneels later, Romo is entering training camp as the favorite to backup starter Drew Bledsoe. He has no real game experience since three years ago against very mediocre talent. He hasn’t been sent to NFL Europe. Romo’s only preparation to this point has been the teachings from recently departed quarterbacks coach Sean Payton. Not exactly anything of substance to ease Cowboy fans from begging for Brady Quinn.
So what exactly makes it look like the Cowboys are convinced he can be the future?
After the 2006 season, Parcells will have put four years into the development of Romo. Everyone knows, and Parcells openly admits, that The Tuna’s deadline for production is 3 years. If a player can’t produce by his third year in the league, it’s time to bring in some new guns. He stayed patient with Bradie James, and it paid off huge dividends in James’ third year, when he became a starter. He stayed patient with the big, speedy wide receiver Randal Williams for three years. When he produced just one catch in Parcells’ regime, he was cut. He’ll stay patient with a player for three years, but that is the deadline. No ifs, ands, or buts about it, and certainly no extensions.
So this Romo must really be showing Parcells something in practice. Otherwise Parcells would certainly have brought in someone to backup Bledsoe. He would have at least shown interest in Kerry Collins or Tommy Maddox or John Kitna. Surely Parcells isn’t going into the season without a backup quarterback he feels can win.
"I'm hoping (Romo) shows enough to be confident to play him," Parcells said. "We'll see. I'm very hopeful of that." When it comes to publicly praising his players, that’s about as good an endorsement you can get. After a spectacular preseason game from Demarcus Ware last year, Parcells only had criticism of Ware’s play for the media. He has also been very good friends with Romo outside of the football setting, often playing golf together. Bill Parcells is convinced that he’s found his future starter.
It would appear, also, that he has convinced Jerry Jones of this too. Jones has been quoted in numerous interviews that he still believes the quarterback of the future may “very well come from within”. He’s not talking about Henson, who didn’t quite fall on his proverbial arse in NFL Europe like Hutchinson two years earlier, but he wasn’t exactly amazing either. As many have probably seen on Sportscenter, Parcells was “hoping for a little more” from Henson’s play.
Even if these feelings aren’t from the top of the chain of command, there are quite a few within the organization who have told the press that they think Romo can be something special for the Cowboys. Kind of like Jake Delhomme was for the Panthers. These feelings can’t be too far down that chain of command though, because the Cowboys turned down a day one draft pick in the 2006 draft from the New York Jets. Clearly other NFL persons have seen the same thing the Cowboys have to offer such a high pick for such an inexperienced player.
I am not saying that I agree with this approach, but it certainly seems as if Romo will be competing with Drew Bledsoe for the starting job as soon as 2007.
This means, that despite what most people will be saying come February and March, the Cowboys likely won’t target a quarterback like Drew Stanton in the 2007 NFL draft. More likely targets will be a wide receiver like Sidney Rice or Jeff Samardzija, a runningback (if Julius Jones suffers another injury) like Michael Bush, or an offensive tackle like Levi Brown.
Like it or not Dallas nation, Romo will be given a shot to be the future.
Every single snap he has taken in his career has been executed to perfection. The ball was snapped into his hands, with nary a fumble on the center-quarterback exchange. His right foot would go back first, and without hesitation, he put his knee into the ground, allowing the clock to run out. Perfection? Sure. Experience? Not even comically close. It is certainly arguable whether this will be an intelligent decision, but it appears that the Dallas Cowboys are poised to give the inexperienced Tony Romo a chance to be the future of the franchise as soon as the 2007 season.
Tony Romo became a Dallas Cowboy as an undrafted rookie free agent from Eastern Illinois before the 2003 season. Now he certainly didn’t have top competition in college, but he was dominant at his level. He won the Walter Payton award, Division 1-AA’s counterpart to the Heisman trophy. He set school and conference records in career touchdowns with 85 (82 in just three years). He is a good sized (6’2” 219), athletic, fairly strong armed pocket passer: very similar to Phil Simms, who led a Bill Parcells New York Giants team to a couple of Super Bowls.
Romo, who is certainly in the mold of former Parcells’ quarterbacks, obviously impressed The Tuna immediately. During his first training camp, the battle for the starting quarterback position was between Quincy Carter and Chad Hutchinson. As such, Parcells needed to see both of those signal callers as often as possible, leaving only a few snaps to spare. Nearly all of those snaps, however, went to Romo, instead of the favorite to take the third string job, Clint Stoerner.
Two average preseasons and two perfect kneels later, Romo is entering training camp as the favorite to backup starter Drew Bledsoe. He has no real game experience since three years ago against very mediocre talent. He hasn’t been sent to NFL Europe. Romo’s only preparation to this point has been the teachings from recently departed quarterbacks coach Sean Payton. Not exactly anything of substance to ease Cowboy fans from begging for Brady Quinn.
So what exactly makes it look like the Cowboys are convinced he can be the future?
After the 2006 season, Parcells will have put four years into the development of Romo. Everyone knows, and Parcells openly admits, that The Tuna’s deadline for production is 3 years. If a player can’t produce by his third year in the league, it’s time to bring in some new guns. He stayed patient with Bradie James, and it paid off huge dividends in James’ third year, when he became a starter. He stayed patient with the big, speedy wide receiver Randal Williams for three years. When he produced just one catch in Parcells’ regime, he was cut. He’ll stay patient with a player for three years, but that is the deadline. No ifs, ands, or buts about it, and certainly no extensions.
So this Romo must really be showing Parcells something in practice. Otherwise Parcells would certainly have brought in someone to backup Bledsoe. He would have at least shown interest in Kerry Collins or Tommy Maddox or John Kitna. Surely Parcells isn’t going into the season without a backup quarterback he feels can win.
"I'm hoping (Romo) shows enough to be confident to play him," Parcells said. "We'll see. I'm very hopeful of that." When it comes to publicly praising his players, that’s about as good an endorsement you can get. After a spectacular preseason game from Demarcus Ware last year, Parcells only had criticism of Ware’s play for the media. He has also been very good friends with Romo outside of the football setting, often playing golf together. Bill Parcells is convinced that he’s found his future starter.
It would appear, also, that he has convinced Jerry Jones of this too. Jones has been quoted in numerous interviews that he still believes the quarterback of the future may “very well come from within”. He’s not talking about Henson, who didn’t quite fall on his proverbial arse in NFL Europe like Hutchinson two years earlier, but he wasn’t exactly amazing either. As many have probably seen on Sportscenter, Parcells was “hoping for a little more” from Henson’s play.
Even if these feelings aren’t from the top of the chain of command, there are quite a few within the organization who have told the press that they think Romo can be something special for the Cowboys. Kind of like Jake Delhomme was for the Panthers. These feelings can’t be too far down that chain of command though, because the Cowboys turned down a day one draft pick in the 2006 draft from the New York Jets. Clearly other NFL persons have seen the same thing the Cowboys have to offer such a high pick for such an inexperienced player.
I am not saying that I agree with this approach, but it certainly seems as if Romo will be competing with Drew Bledsoe for the starting job as soon as 2007.
This means, that despite what most people will be saying come February and March, the Cowboys likely won’t target a quarterback like Drew Stanton in the 2007 NFL draft. More likely targets will be a wide receiver like Sidney Rice or Jeff Samardzija, a runningback (if Julius Jones suffers another injury) like Michael Bush, or an offensive tackle like Levi Brown.
Like it or not Dallas nation, Romo will be given a shot to be the future.
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