Tony Romo might return to Cowboys sooner than we think after all
The Dallas Cowboys are not planning to place quarterback Tony Romo on injured reserve. This is a pretty strong show of support for his ability to return at some point in the early part of the season.
Romo suffered a broken bone in his back in the preseason and was estimated to miss anywhere from a quarter of the season to half of it while rookie Dak Prescott stewards the ship. Head coach Jason Garrett said Monday that the team wanted to have the most up-to-date medical information on Romo’s back when it made the decision to IR him or not.
Instead, they’ll officially carry him on the active roster for now.
Jerry also adds to @1053thefan that there isn't a more valuable option that makes it worth it to take Romo off the active roster.
— David Helman (@HelmanDC) September 6, 2016
Owner Jerry Jones said the team has enough information to make the decision and — in the most Jonesian way possible — told Cowboys Nation they need not worry about how they arrived at the decision to eat up a roster spot.
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“You don’t have to spend a lot of time going over and kind of circumcising the mosquito,” Jones said, via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “You don’t have to do that over there on him because you look back over on the other side that caused you to make the decision, and there’s nobody good enough to take that spot to give you a chance for that if he can come back.”
The decision outwardly suggests that Romo will be back in the first half of the season. Placing him on IR would have meant that Romo wouldn’t have been allowed to practice for the first six weeks of the season and would be forced to sit the first eight games minimum. Now, he’s eligible to return prior to that, pending a complication or a change of heart by the team.
He suffered a compression fracture in his L1 vertebra early in the preseason game against the Seattle Seahawks back on Aug. 25, and it was deemed at the time to not be that serious until further medical tests showed how serious it was. That was almost two weeks ago, and club officials and coaches have debated Romo’s health since then.
Now it appears he’ll have a chance to return on the lower end of the projected range of missing 6-10 weeks with the injury. But is this a good thing? There’s still the concern about Romo’s long-term health, and perhaps the Cowboys will treat things a bit more conservatively if Prescott — a stunning preseason hero — performs above expectations typically levied on a late fourth-round pick being thrust into the lineup Week 1 of his rookie season.
The Cowboys also signed Mark Sanchez, who was cut by the Denver Broncos, to back up Prescott as another layer of insurance.
So which party is being more foolish here — the Cowboys or Romo? This is not just a garden-variety broken bone, after all; it’s his darned vertebra we’re talking about. Perhaps it’s the kind of thing he can recover from and be fine. But Romo’s injury history, which includes two broken clavicles and two prior back surgeries before this latest injury, must seriously be considered when he or the team plot his comeback. His career and livelihood hang in the balance.
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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!
