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There Are Only So Many Places Tony Romo Will Go

Where will Romo park his spurs next season?

As the offseason heats up the biggest story will continue to 2017 employment plans of Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo. Conceivably everybody has an idea of his “perfect” fit. Even potential No. 1 pick Myles Garrett weighed in on the subject, suggesting the Cowboys trade Romo to the Cleveland Browns, holder of the top pick in April’s NFL Draft, and select him.

Of all the ridiculous trades and moves that could happen this offseason, there’s one guarantee I can give you. Tony Romo will not be a Cleveland Brown.

There are issues with any Romo move, the first being his $24.7 million cap number for 2017. Now, Dallas can fit that in as they already have him on the roster, but trust that they’d love to move him and have some, if not all of that, to use in free agency. They don’t have to trade Romo at all. And he can’t force a trade. All he can really do is retire.

But Jerry Jones likes Romo and I really believe he wants to see him play again and succeed. Jones also wants to get the best possible compensation for Romo in the process, so I really don’t see him getting cut. A renegotiated, more cap-friendly contract and a trade makes a lot more sense.

With a trade scenario, you knock out any possibility of Romo ending up with an NFC team. There are enough obstacles in a highly competitive conference already without handing a team three years worth of franchise quarterback.

So we need to look at QB-needy teams in the AFC as possible landing spots for Romo. The Browns are taking a QB No. 1 in the draft. Pay no attention to any mock draft saying otherwise. They blew their chance at Carson Wentz last season, they won’t make the same mistake two years in a row. Especially not with so many picks to use from the trade last season with the Philadelphia Eagles. But like I said earlier, there’s no chance Romo would play a down for Cleveland. Jones wouldn’t do that to him and, if he did, Romo would just retire.

With the Browns off the table, who else can we remove? The Indianapolis Colts, Los Angeles Chargers, Oakland Raiders, Tennessee Titans, Pittsburgh Steelers, Cincinnati Bengals, Baltimore Ravens and New England Patriots all have their quarterbacks and no interest or need of Romo’s services.

That leaves the Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins, New York Jets, Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars, Denver Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs.

The Dolphins and Chiefs both have decent quarterbacks, but there’s no question Romo would be a significant upgrade over Ryan Tannehill and Alex Smith. The Dolphins and Chiefs both have a lot of money tied up in their quarterbacks so any move for Romo would put Tannehill or Smith in the wind. More ridiculous trades and moves have happened, but I really think both the Dolphins and Chiefs will stand pat with the guys they have and continue to build around them.

The Jaguars are still in Blake Bortles’ rookie contract and the third-year QB regressed along with his team in 2016. If I’m Doug Marrone, I’m not prepared to cut bait on Bortles just yet and, again, Romo probably wouldn’t want to play in Jacksonville anyway, even though the skill position guys on offense are some of the best in the league.

How about the New York Jets? I can’t see that happening since the Jets need to be a in a total rebuild. They need to shed veteran contracts, not add another one. And no one who saw New York play this season should think they’re just a quarterback away.

That leaves three teams and they’re all interesting destinations for Romo and all come with some caveats; the Bills, the Texans and the Broncos.

With the Bills, you have a new and solid-looking coaching staff, offensive weapons and a good enough defense to win some games. You’re also playing in the AFC East, consistently the worst division in the NFL. An offense built around Romo’s talents firing the ball to Sammy Watkins and using the multi-talented LeSean McCoy, could be legitimately tempting.

But Buffalo is cold as balls and Romo is getting up there in age. He may not want to brave its icy Hellscape for eight-plus games a season over the last few years of his career.

That leaves the Denver Broncos and the Houston Texans and both of these teams are the true contenders for Romo’s services. Both teams have Super Bowl ready defenses and star skill players on offense, just begging for a franchise quarterback to take them all the way to the promised land of Super Bowl LII. Hell, if Romo went to Houston he wouldn’t even have to leave the state.

The Texans would have to cut Brock Osweiler and eat $6 million in cap space (or, preferably, ask him to restructure so they can keep him and Romo both). The Broncos are sitting on $33 million in cap space right now and can easily fit a more cap-friendly Romo contract on their team, especially if they shed Russell Okung and Aqib Talib’s contracts, as has been rumored.

John Elway made a move like this before and it took the Broncos to two Super Bowls and won one. He can see it happening again the same way we can with Romo. It’s why this move has made the most sense to everybody since Dak Prescott first emerged as the Cowboys’ entrenched starter.

The smart money is on Denver and has been since last September.

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Written by Adam Greene

Adam Greene is a writer and photographer based out of East Tennessee. His work has appeared on Cracked.com, in USA Today, the Associated Press, the Chicago Cubs Vineline Magazine, AskMen.com and many other publications.

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