There’s a growing sense among those who love to fly rumors around from NFL mouths that Tony Romo will make an appearance for the Dallas Cowboys in week 17, which will be his first in the 2016 regular season, and possibly his last in Cowboys uniform.
Cowboys' QB Tony Romo is expected to play Sunday vs Eagles for the first time since Thanksgiving 2015, sources tell @toddarcher and me.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 30, 2016
It’s not quite clear how true this is, but the Cowboys are expected to give Romo limited playing time in the season finale against the against the Philadelphia Eagles in Philly. Romo hasn’t played a game since his injury in the preseason vs the Seattle Seahawks, and has even been relegated to QB3 behind Mark Sanchez and starting rookie, Dak Prescott. Earlier this week Jerry Jones made it seem like the Cowboys have no intention of putting Romo on the field at any point, playoffs or not. Considering the Cowboys have a very big incentive to trade him before the 2017 season begins, avoiding risking him to another injury sounds like a good enough reason to keep him inactive.
But seeing as Romo really wants to play and the Cowboys have nothing riding on their game against the Eagles (already clinched the #1 seed in the NFC, which means the bye week and home field advantage until the Super Bowl), it’s a good opportunity to put him on the field for probably one last time before the talk of his next team get in higher gear. Who knows what’s going to happen in the playoffs; if Prescott goes down with an injury Romo is the better option than Sanchez. However, the Cowboys don’t want things to go down that way. The quarterback controversy never existed, except for the words of Jerry Jones. The moment Prescott took over, it was his job, and not to lose. Simply his job, maybe for a very long time.
Romo made his debut for the Cowboys in 2004, but only in 2006 goth is first start a week after his famous entrance for Drew Bledsoe. He leads the franchise in passing yards, passing touchdowns, completion percentage (for players with a few seasons under their belt) and passer rating, again amongst qualified quarterbacks. If he does become available for trade next season (his $24.7 million cap hit suggests he will), a lot of teams will be willing to deal with the Cowboys for him.