Cowboys Chat: The Dez Bryant Show and Romo’s Trade Value
By Reid Hanson
In the latest Sport DFW chat we talk some Dallas Cowboys, hitting on controversial subjects like Tony Romo the backup and Dez Bryant playing amidst tragedy…
The Dallas Cowboys’ rookie sensations, Ezekiel Elliott and Dak Prescott, have been making plenty of the headlines this season but a couple members of the “old guard” got into the newsreel this past week.
We’ll look at that in this edition of Cowboys Chat:
Tony Romo is officially a backup. Will he play again this season?
Not unless Dak Prescott gets injured. All indications are that the Dallas Cowboys are fully committed to Dak Prescott in the present and in the future. Prescott has the respect of his teammates and coaches in a way rookies rarely do.
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The Cowboys do not want to undermine this.
Will Tony Romo be a Dallas Cowboy next season?
No way. He’s not going to take a paycut. He’s not going to coach. He’s not going to join the front office. Tony Romo is a starting QB and will be traded to a team that needs a starting QB.
What could the Cowboys get for Romo?
I addressed this a little before the trade deadline. It’s tough to place a value on him since his injury history is significant, as is his age. But if Sam Bradford can get a first rounder, so can Romo, right?
I expect there will be a bidding war and I expect the Cowboys to get a high risk/reward player, a guaranteed draft pick, and a conditional draft pick that will be based on his ability to stay healthy in 2017.
Is Dez Bryant the heartbeat of this team?
I’m not sure the team has identified a heartbeat quite yet. Dez missed a significant portion of the season and is just now finding a way to gel with his new teammates. Dez is passionate, that’s for sure, but I’m not sure he’s the heart. The team has such collective roles right now, a case could be made multiple players are the heart, mind, and soul of this team.
Dez Bryant had a great game in the face of tragedy on Sunday. He lost his father on Saturday but played anyway, catching 6 balls for 116 yards and a TD. Was this his greatest performance considering his personal loss?
I don’t want to sound like a grump here but it really irks me when people are praised for working after a personal loss. I don’t think he should be judged good or bad for it. Having suffered significant losses myself I can say diving into work is a very nice way to deal, or actually distract, from a heavy heart. People who stop working and spend their time of mourning dedicated to their families deserve just as much, if not more, praise than those who work through tragedies.
Everyone mourns differently and I hate judging positively or negatively the optics of their mourning. I realize pro football only plays 16 regular season games a year and the expectations are to play, but I don’t like setting the standard as a society that “working” is what makes you great. That said, it was cool to see the performance AND the emotion.
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Was this a turning point for the Dak to Dez relationship?
With a rookie so green, anything and everything can be a turning point. I’m seeing Dak Prescott mature as a passer every game and part of that is hitting those long balls. Dak missed opportunities earlier in the season but we’re seeing him develop and take advantage of those opportunities more and more.
I expect good things from Dak and Dez going forward…