The recent airing of Tony Romo’s “A Football Life” from NFL Films on the NFL network has rekindled the ongoing dispute between Tony Romo loyalists and Dak Prescott truthers. Ever since Prescott replaced an injured Tony Romo in 2016, Dallas Cowboys fans have been divided on whether or not Romo should have been given the starting job back. When Prescott was named the starter and Romo subsequently retired in 2017 the question of whether the Cowboys would have been better off with Romo has been intensely debated and will continue to be for years to come. Practical fans know that this is a question that simply cannot be answered and there is no turning back now. But, for arguments sake I will attempt to delve deeper into that question and try to compare and contrast both quarterbacks as they are now and as they were at the same point in their early careers.
Tony Romo is without a doubt the most polarizing QB in Dallas Cowboys franchise history. If you could gather together all of the Dallas Cowboy fans in one room, you would be able to separate them into one of the three following groups: Tony Romo Lovers, Tony Romo Haters, and Tony Romo Realists. I have experienced all three views during my tenure as a Cowboys fan.
I started out as a Romo Lover. I think we all did after the QB carousel that ensured following the retirement of Troy Aikman. Finally, there was a guy we could believe in and get excited about again. And Tony Romo delivered right away. He was talented, exciting and had a charming off the field personality to boot. He led the Cowboys to the playoffs his first year as a starter but for some fans the honeymoon ended abruptly on that infamous fumbled snap in the wildcard loss to the Seahawks. I was among the many who endured as a Romo lover the following season when he lit up the league and led the Dallas Cowboys to a 13-3 record and the #1 overall seed in the NFC. I was undeterred still after the Cowboys were bounced by the Giants in the divisional round following Romo’s ill advised vacation to Mexico during the bye week prior to the game. I still believed that Romo and the Cowboys would someday bring home a championship.
My opinion of Romo began to sour in December of 2008 following the 44-6 loss the Cowboys suffered at the hands of the Eagles. The loss itself was painful enough to endure having decided who would win the division and advance to the playoffs but it was Romo’s post game comments that really did not sit well with me. He brushed off the loss as “just a football game”, and while that may be the truth, I felt that Cowboy fans who spend millions of dollars on tickets, TV packages, merchandise and ultimately his salary deserved better. At least lie to us and tell us that it was devastating that you lost that game and all the time and money we spend following our team is not solely for something as insignificant as “just a game”. It was at that moment that I switched allegiances and converted fully from Romo lover to Romo hater. My hatred was easy to maintain with the constant disappointments year after year, the December record and the choke artist reputation consistently being reinforced. Often Romo’s supporters turn to 4th quarter comebacks and career passer rating as they argue how great Tony Romo really was. I was not as easily fooled since I believe that Pro Bowls, MVP’s, and playoff victories matter more. I was also quick to point out how 4th quarter comebacks is really a poor and convoluted statistic and that it does not account for blown 4th quarter leads. Romo has had his share of blown leads. Against the Steelers in 2008, the Lions in 2011 and again in 2013, and against Matt Flynn and the Packers in 2013 are the most memorable (or forgettable) that come to my mind. In each of those games Romo committed unforced turnovers and threw more than one touchdown pass…to the opposite team.
After several frustrating years, I finally softened a bit on Tony Romo and came to a realization. Tony Romo was not Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning or Aaron Rodgers but he was a much better quarterback than many other teams had. I looked at teams like the Browns and the Jets and how difficult it was for them to find a decent starting QB. I looked at the hometown Detroit Lions who have a very good QB in Matthew Stafford but whose fans are very underappreciative of him and I realized that the Dallas Cowboys did not have it so bad after all. I became a Tony Romo realist. I understood that he had has faults and was far from flawless but he was an above average and even a very good franchise quarterback. The shame of it all is that he was playing the best football of his career towards the end of it when he could not stay healthy. In his A Football Life documentary, Romo admitted that he finally figured it all out at the end of 2013 not knowing that he would only play another 18 regular season games for the remainder of his career. Part of being a Tony Romo realist, is realizing that after Dak Prescott went 8-1 filling in for him in 2016 that it would be the last we would see of Romo in a Dallas Cowboys uniform. Not only was Dak younger and cheaper but he could stay on the field, something that unfortunately could not be said about Tony Romo.
Now in 2018 as Dak Prescott is struggling to regain his 2016 form, a new subdivision of Dallas Cowboy fans has emerged. Now there are Dak lovers, Dak haters and Dak realists. The Dak haters consist almost entirely of Tony Romo lovers and they have been clamouring for Romo’s return ever since Dak was named the starter back in 2016. The Dak lovers are not at all concerned with his play through the first 4 games of the season but the Dak Prescott realists, though they are cognizant that he is still very young, are beginning to worry that in year three he has seemingly regressed from his dominant rookie season. Thus the question, would the Cowboys be better off with Tony Romo or Dak Prescott?
In comparing the two quarterbacks one thing becomes abundantly clear, they are quite different from each other. Tony Romo was an accurate passer, a gunslinger, he was mobile and elusive in the pocket and threw the football beautifully. Dak Prescott is not nearly as accurate but he takes far less chances. He is also quite mobile but has the added element of being a legitimate threat as a runner. Prescott is also much bigger and more durable than Romo ever was. As different as they are, they also have some similarities. Mainly, both quarterbacks tend to extend plays with their legs which has led to some memorable big plays. At the same time, they are both too eager to escape the pocket in order to create that big play and too often that has led to costly sacks which cause them to lose a ton of yardage. Both quarterbacks have had their issues with consistency and throughout the course of a season or even a game can get extremely hot and cold.
Often when comparing Prescott and Romo, people will point to how each of them had performed during their first 2 years as starters. Prescott’s numbers were better in year one but Romo did have his best career year in his second season so as Prescott’s career advances the numbers favour Tony Romo more and more. That is not a fair comparison in my opinion. Tony Romo did not throw a single pass during his 1st three seasons. In Tony Romo’s A Football Life, it was Bill Parcells who stated that Romo was not even close to being ready to play in year one. Parcells believed that if Romo had played at all during his first three years he would have failed miserably. Romo had the advantage of being coached for three years by none other than Bill Parcells and Sean Payton before he ever made a start. That was during the years when training camp was more than just OTA’s, practicing without pads and limited contact. Dak Prescott had no such advantage. Dak was a fourth round draft pick thrust into the starting role and instead of being groomed by hall of famers he is being coached by Jason Garrett, Scott Linehan and the guy he beat out as a backup his rookie year Kellen Moore. If you think coaching has little do to with a players performance just consider the Rams Jarrod Goff and Todd Gurley before and after Todd McVay. Dak Prescott is clearly much farther advanced at his age than Tony Romo was but hopefully his current trajectory of regression can be reversed. A coaching change may be the only hope to stop that from happening at this point.
Dak Prescott did play well in his rookie year but as well as he played in 2016, if push came to shove I would have to admit the Tony Romo at that time was a better QB than Dak Prescott was. But, having said that Dak Prescott was still the best QB to LEAD that Dallas Cowboys team at that time and for the future? First off Tony Romo’s health was the biggest factor which made this an easy decision for the future of the franchise. More importantly however is that when Dak Prescott took over during that season, he showed poise and leadership that surprised a lot of people and especially his teammates who then rallied behind him. While Romo may have been capable of making throws that Prescott could not, he may not have been as efficient of a game manager. Tony Romo was far more advanced at reading defenses at that point in his career than Prescott was but there are often times in a game where the smart/safe play is better than risky play and Dak Prescott seemed to make those prudent decisions more often than the “gunslinger” Tony Romo. Then there is the off the field stuff. Tony Romo was no Johnny Manziel but between his celebrity girlfriends, trips to Mexico and difficulty with prioritizing his various other passions such as golfing and fantasy football ahead of offseason improvement, he was an easy target for the media. Dak Prescott on the other hand has not said or done anything to put himself in a similar position since he has become a Dallas Cowboy (He did have a DUI incident in college). He is always humble, he answers questions the right way and he has not made any regretful decisions to date. Those traits are often more important than elite arm talent when considering who will become the next franchise quarterback.
Ultimately, regardless of talent or character what fans want in a franchise quarterback is a winner. Football may be the ultimate team sport but Quarterbacks are measured not based on their individual statistics but on the number of Super Bowls they have won. Was Tony Romo a winner? I think it is fair to say that he was not. He has never won a championship, in fact he has never advanced past the divisional round. Spare me the argument that he was stuck on a lousy team with a bad o-line because he played on some pretty talented teams with multiple Pro-Bowl linemen, especially the 2014 and 2007 teams. He had admitted himself in his A Football Life documentary that the 2007 team that lost to the Giants in the first round was the best team he had ever played on. One thing that struck me the most about that documentary was that it showed exactly why Romo was not a winner. In the episode he explained how he wanted to play basketball and practiced very hard every day to perfect his game but when his father told him that he was too small and too slow to have a future in the sport he made the decision to pursue football instead. Unlike the ultimate winner Michael Jordan who was cut from his high school basketball team and went on to become the greatest basketball player of all-time, Romo quit the sport entirely. Romo went on to say that the ‘Dez caught it’ play in Green Bay would have been the best throw of his career. Think about that, if the Cowboys would have gotten a first down and a CHANCE to score a touchdown in a game they were leading for 3 quarters and still leave time on the clock to give Aaron Rodgers the ball back, then that would have been his crowning achievement. This was not a Super Bowl or even an NFC Championship game but a divisional round playoff game. Finally, when Romo was asked if he regretted never winning a Super Bowl he responded that he had no regrets. He said that “He feels like he is the luckiest man in the world” because he has had a good life and had a successful career. There is nothing wrong with that, it makes perfect sense but it shows that maybe Romo was missing that drive, that extra motivation that separates champions from everybody else. That care free, fun loving attitude he had has always been a sore point with me. Especially because I can recall on more than one occasion when Romo guaranteed that the Cowboys would win a Super Bowl. He said it with confidence and with the same passion and easy going demeanor that has helped him excel in the announcer’s booth. The problem was that he never even came close to doing it. When Joe Namath guaranteed victory in Super Bowl III it was a bold move, it was irresponsible and it was just plain crazy but because he pulled it off it became legendary. That is what separates legends from everybody else, they deliver on their promises. Dak Prescott has made no such promises and that is much more preferable to Tony Romo’s fruitless Super Bowl guarantees. Actions after all speak louder than words.
What about Dak Prescott? Is he a winner? That is yet to be determined. What we do know is that Dak won 13 games as a rookie and although he had a great offensive line and a superstar running back, that has to count for something. So no matter if you are a Dak hater or a Dak lover, no one can deny that Dak Prescott is going to get several chances to prove himself over the next few years.
References:
“Tony Romo: A Football Life”, A Football Life, Season 8, episode 3, NFL Network, September 28, 2018, NFL Films
*Photos by MBR Images, Dreamstime.com and Kieth Allision https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode
You have no context built into this analysis which is huge. Go back and look at those Romo teams; many were old—lacked consistent defense and a good running game. Half of Romo’s years were spent making up for a porous O-line. Romo made your team better; Dak simply does not at this point and you see it when good teams load the box up on Zeke. They force you Dak to throw the ball and it’s just not happening; he has poor footwork at this stage. I’ve never seen someone throw so many throws on the back of their foot. Add that with his unwillingness to take chances-I’d say comes from more of a confidence issue in his ability-you have tons of under thrown balls.
It’s easy to since I’m 2016 that team was at a different level of every phase of the ballgame and Romo was the missing link. Not so much because Dak was not good or serviceable; it’s just at the end of the day Romo was at the point where it had all come together mentally, knowing the defenses as he mentioned after the Denver 2013 game. Now health was an issue, but that O-line was impenetrable much of 2016.
That can be argued all day but nothing comes from it. But you will see by the end of 2018’s season, this will be an 8-8 or worse team due to the schedule and teams knowing they can make the Cowboys 1 dimensional. The Cowboys were lucky to be a inexperienced Lions team. The Giants are a mess.
This team is nowhere near the Rams as Jerry says. My prediction is they lose out to the NFC South (minus Tampa), half of the AFC South, and will split with the Eagles/Redskins from here on out, giving them an 8-8 record.
Which is a shame because this defense may be the best since Parcells. Don’t let your short term memory full you. The 2007 and 2014 offenses covered some gaping defensive holes. 2016 was a solid enough unit.
End of the day, Romo could still be quarterbacking and Dak backing him up. That would’ve been monumental for Dak’s growth and I think you would have seen a more polished player take the helm closer to 2019 than 2016.
Thanks for your input Hugh. That is a fair overall assessment and 8-8 or worse is likely bang on (but hopefully they surprise us). I do disagree with you on a couple of points though. I personally feel that the 2007 defense with Ware, Ellis, Newman etc. was far superior to the 2014 and even the 2016 units. Remember it was the lack of a pass rush that was the key factor in the playoff losses both of those years. Dez may have caught it in 2014 but they still had an opportunity to stop Rodgers and could not. This years defense is the best they have had in years and there is a lot of potential there but they are far from elite right now. They have faced 4 of the weakest offensive fronts in the league thus far. If you remove D-Law, the pass rush is still pedestrian, the interior defensive line depth is paper thin and as a whole lacks size and elite talent and don’t forget that safety is a huge problem. It does not help their cause that the offense can’t keep them off the field and they STILL can’t generate takeaways. As for Dak, I think he could benefit far more from the right coaching change than he would have sitting behind Romo right now but I don’t have a ton of confidence in Jerry’s ability to find the right guy.
Much has been written about How high, and awesome Tony Romo was. The poster Hugh Jasmin accused the writer of having no context to build on. When he attempts to make his argument for Romo, he offers not one scintilla of evidence to support his premises. He ignores the fact that Romo was a 2-4 post season QB. Mr.Jasmin conveniently forget that Romo was given in 2014 an all-pro- first team three linemen, all pro-first squad running back, Pro Bowl tight end, and future Hall of Famer, and all pro-first team wide receiver and what happened. The same as in 2007 (one and done), 2009( 1-1) and 2104(1-1) and two wins in 10 years.
My supporting evidence is this :
2006 Romo 17-29-168 yards – 1-0- NY/A 5.42
2007 18-36-182 – 50% 1-1-NYA – 4.79 -This team had 12 record pro-bowlers on the team
2009 45-70–192 net yards per game (2 games average ) 1 passing touchdown a game. NY/A 4.92
2014 34-50 —212 net yards per game (2 game average ) 2 passing touchdowns a game NY/A 6.87 – 8-year starter and first team all-pro offensively supporting cast!
Romo apologist’s never can refute these facts that Romo was an average QB that never performed in the postseason and winning is everything and Mr. Romo never, ever elevated his team in the postseason. One more final point, he has never had a 100-yard receiver in the postseason.
The Defense rest your honor!
Hugh Jassmin I agree with you on every point. And for the other two who responded are definitely tony romo haters. And dak Prescott lovers. Soon dak wont do anything for us. He’s not smart or careful. He is just scared and has no confidence