Yakuza Rich: Romo Extension Thoughts (w/stats)

[Yakuza Rich]

Romo Extension Thoughts
by Yakuza Rich
http://yakuzarich.blogspot.com/


With Romo signing a 6 year extension this week, it's pretty safe to say that three of the NFC East teams (Washington, New York and Dallas) are now "married" to young Quarterbacks. Sure, something could happen to change the Commanders mind's on Jason Campbell as well with the Giants and Eli, but we're likely to see these QB's with their respective teams for the next five years. And in NFL years that's a long time.

But while everything looks great for Romo, Cowboys fans have to keep in mind just that. Five years is a long time in the NFL and, well, *stuff happens.* For every Tom Brady and Peyton Manning that start off as promising Quarterbacks that develop great careers, there's a Chad Pennington or a Daunte Culpepper or a Kurt Warner who see an injury make them a shell of their former selves almost immediately.

However, teams cannot possibly live in a risk free environment and have to take the necessary risks in order to obtain success. So the reality is that the best the team, their players, and their fans can hope for is that the organization continues to make smart, logical decisions and continue to build through the draft and give themselves some comfortable cap room to obtain some players if there's an emergency (something Dallas will have to think about next season with Flozell.

And that's obviously what Dallas did here with Romo. He'll be 33 years old by the time his last season of his contract is up and I think it's at the point that if a QB can stay reasonably healthy, he can still be an excellent QB by that age. Hell, even Trent Green went down with a torn ACL at the age of 29 and then wound up in Kansas City two years later and started 81 games in a row for them.

Furthermore, Dallas has plenty of cap room and will probably be around $28 million under the cap. So if Romo does go down with an injury and it's a career threatening one, at least Dallas has the *chance* to possibly sign a veteran (Brad Johnson won't cut it as a starter) while drafting a Quarterback and grooming him to take over. Or if Romo is fine and they need a free agent cornerback, they could easily afford him.

But one thing I wanted to look at was how Romo stacked up against Campbell and Eli Manning when it came to facing the same opponents. So what I did was take a list of the same teams (must be same team from same season) and see how they stacked up against each other. Here's what I've got:

ROMO VS. CAMPBELL​

Romo

10 games (7 from 2006 + 3 from 2007)
7-2 as a starter
60.2% completion (179-297)
20 TD's
13 INT's
8.3 YPA
91.4 QB Rating


Campbell

9 games (6 from 2006 + 3 from 2007)
3-6 as starter
53.7% completion (146-272)
11 TD's
9 INT's
6.4 YPA
73.2 QB rating



Now let's take a look at Eli vs. Romo's comparable opponents.


Romo

9 games
5-4 as starter
63% completion
15 TD's
7 INT's
7.8 YPA
94.7 QB Rating


Manning

12 games
7-5 as starter
58.2% completion
19 TD's
11 INT's
6.1 ypa
80.7 QB rating


It's a bit odd that an undrafted Quarterback can outperform a former 1st overall pick and a 25th overall pick, but so far Romo has done it. And if he keeps up the pace, he'll be well worth the money spent and the Giants and Commanders are likely to be playing catchup to the Cowboys for quite some time (the Eagles as well as they still have to develop Kevin Kolb).

But there are no guarantees in the NFL, except for Romo's $31 million guaranteed. And that's something that Cowboys fans have to remind themselves about.





YAKUZA

 

[Bob Sacamano]

great stuff, as usual, just 1 question, why compare Romo w/ Campbell and Eli? Romo......................and then Eli.........................................................................................................................(flips 10 pages) and then Campbell j/k Rich

 

[big dog cowboy]

So the reality is that the best the team, their players, and their fans can hope for is that the organization continues to make smart, logical decisions and continue to build through the draft and give themselves some comfortable cap room to obtain some players if there's an emergency (something Dallas will have to think about next season with Flozell.

Building a strong O-line in front of Romo should be one of the top priorities each off season. Every year we should spend a 3rd or 4th on a O-line prospect to keep the vets challenged and help keep the line young.

In the '90's we had one of the top O-lines in the business and it help keep Aikman healthy. While Romo is more mobile, we need to keep him as clean as possible.

 

[CowboyWay]

Building a strong O-line in front of Romo should be one of the top priorities each off season. .

I absolutely agree. We got by in the past with a few scrubs on the Oline because he had scrub qb's. But now we have a 67 million dollar man with 30 million GUARANTEED back there. Do any of you really think Jerry is going to let flo go and put some 2nd year hack in there? Absolutely not.

Flo will go, and we will be taking the best OT player available with the brownies pick. I'd bet money on it.

 

[AtomicDog]

Like somebody somewhere said "Get your quarterback and then build around him"... now we can add pieces around Romo. A nice young wide receiver, another nifty running back, throw in another good corner and a playmaking lb and you've got a superbowl contender for 5 years.

 

[sago1]

I'm still concerned about our OL. There's too many times when Romo has to run for his life; and, despite their size, they aren't getting the job done in the running game. I don't know whose the weak link or if there's 2 of them but Jerry needs to fix it. I'm hoping Jerry constantly remembers Romo's comment during last Tuesday's PC that he believed Jerry would always put the Cowboys in a position to compete. We must add a quality young WR with speed opposite TO, upgrade our secondary & RB position (with the departure of Jones), add missing piece of the puzzle on the OL & get another playmaker on defense. Just wish RW was the tackling machine/game changer he was a few years ago. Maybe this game will somehow fire him up.

, RB to replace

 

[thekavorka]

great stats