For a long time, Tony Romo has been associated with the Dallas Cowboys and it is hard to mention one entity without mentioning the other. In 2017, there is a high probability that he will no longer be on the Cowboys’ roster, and it may end up happening much sooner than that. The rumors swirling around right now state that if the team isn’t going to end up releasing him, they may trade him sometime within the next 30 days.
It should come as no surprise that there is a very good chance that Romo won’t be with the Cowboys for the 2017 season. A number of teams could use a veteran signal-caller to run their team as not everyone will be able to find a rookie like Dak Prescott in the crowd of those coming out of college.
With a lot of money invested in Romo and that cash needing to be put to better use than a backup quarterback, the Cowboys will have to do something. If the rumors are believed to be true, something is going to be done quite soon.
According to Scout , NFL insider Ian Rapoport believes that the Cowboys are going to trade away Tony Romo within the next 30 days. Yes, the team wants to show respect to the man who has led their offense for so long, but they don’t want to let him go without getting anything in return.
There have been a number of teams that have emerged as possible landing spots for Romo in 2017 and they include the Denver Broncos, Houston Texans, and Kansas City Chiefs. Now, while there are other teams that need a quarterback with Romo’s skills to enhance their roster, they also need to have the money to make the trade.
In 2017, Romo will count for $24.7 million against the salary cap with his current contract in place. That could easily have a lot of teams looking in the free agent market, for other trade partners, or even to the NFL Draft for the next big thing.
Should too much time go by where Dallas can’t find a trading partner, they may simply have to bite the bullet and simply release Romo to let him become a free agent.
Dan Graziano of ESPN is reporting that the salary cap hit for Romo is what will make this decision-making process so difficult. Yes, it is a $24.7 million cap hit, and Dallas will still carry $19.6 million of that money whether they trade of release him for this year’s cap.
Now, if there are no teams really jumping up to trade for Romo, the Cowboys may end up waiting to release him until after June 1, 2017. Doing that will allow Jerry Jones to split that cap hit up over the course of the next two years instead of eating it all this year, and that would be the smartest thing for them to do.
While designating Romo as a post-June 1st release would help the Cowboys, but it wouldn’t help him. Jones may want to give him a bit more respect and time with which to find a new team.
Trading Romo would ultimately save the Dallas Cowboys about $5 million against the 2017 salary cap, and that money could prove to be very important. For as well as the team played in 2016, they still came up short of Super Bowl LI and that means looking for a few extra pieces to complete their roster.
The Dallas Cowboys had an entirely different look in 2016 with rookies Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott leading the way on offense. Aside from that, the team was better than they had been in years, but no-one was really ready for it. Fans always thought that they some warning would come when Tony Romo’s era in Big D was up, but now, it is just going to kind of happen. If the rumors are true, his time with a star on his helmet is over as he will soon be traded or released.
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