The Dallas Cowboys’ season came to a surprising end Sunday afternoon after the NFC East champions lost a heart-breaker to the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Divisional Playoffs.
It was a premature end to a season that saw Dallas surprise the masses by posting a 13-3 record and earning the No. 1 overall seed in the NFC.
Now, with the 2016 season in their rear-view mirror, the Cowboys head into an offseason of uncertainty. Most of that surrounds the future of former Pro Bowl quarterback Tony Romo, who was replaced under center by rookie Dak Prescott after the veteran suffered a back injury during the preseason.
All indications seem to be that Romo will be moving on from the Cowboys when the new league year starts in March. In talking about this possibility, NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport made sure to indicate that trading Romo is the team’s No. 1 priority.
“We know he’s (Romo) not going to be on the Cowboys in 2017. They’re going to try to trade him, obviously. No surprise there. Their No. 1 priority this offseason, Rapoport reported, via NFL.com. “I also know Romo’s preferred location would be the Denver Broncos.”
The last aspect of this report is already well known. Suggestions over the weekend were that Romo preferred to land with the defending champion Broncos. Unfortunately for the Cowboys, it appears that Denver is unwilling to trade for him — primarily due to his $25 million cap hit for the 2017 season (more on that here).
This comes on the heels of Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett refusing to name Prescott the starting quarterback for the 2017 season. Though, that could very well have more to do with Dallas maintaining its negotiating leverage in any trade discussions surrounding Romo.
Of the teams with potential openings at quarterback, Denver seems to be the most-logical fit for Romo. But as we saw with the entire Colin Kaepernick situation last spring, John Elway and Co. don’t seem to be willing to invest a huge capital on this position.
It’s going to be interesting to see just how this dynamic plays out. Dallas is free to trade Romo to any team that might be willing to give up something worthwhile for the veteran. The question now becomes whether owner Jerry Jones and Co, owe it to their long-time quarterback to put him in the best situation to win.