4. Dallas Cowboys trade Tony Romo to the Denver Broncos
It’s becoming clear that the Broncos are not settled at the quarterback position. Sure first-head head coach Vance Joseph indicated last month that they would have Paxton Lynch and Trevor Siemian compete for the job in 2017. That claim seemed to be countered with general manager John Elway telling reporters at the combine this week that everything remains on the table (more on that here).
One thing is clear: Romo would prefer to go to Denver over any other team in need of a quarterback. That fulfills one-third of the necessary dots needed to connect Romo to the Broncos. The one primary sticking point here is the quarterback’s near $25 million cap hit for the 2017 season. This has led to speculation that Dallas might be forced to release Romo outright.
There’s two issues with that scenario. If the Cowboys were to release Romo, it would allow another team to open up negotiations with the quarterback. Secondly, Dallas itself wouldn’t get any compensation.
Jenny Vrentas over as MMQB reported just recently that the asking price for Romo in a trade would be a third-round pick. If that’s the case, Dallas would be dumb to release him outright — forcing the team to eat nearly $20 million in dead cap.
Instead, the likeliest scenario remains that Romo will be dealt for a mid-round pick. If so, the Broncos should definitely come calling. It would require the quarterback taking a pay cut on a new deal, something he’s said to be open to doing.
Romo won’t be back in a Cowboys uniform next season. The Broncos need a quarterback. Everything else in between these two major factors should act as nothing more than white noise at this point.