Romo’s Back is Improving, Will Stay on Active Roster: Garrett

The Cowboys have seen enough improvement in Tony Romo's back to keep him on the active 53-man roster.

If they were to place him on the short term injured reserve list, Romo will be ineligible for first eight weeks of the season. For now, Romo is staying active in hopes that he could be fully recovered earlier than expected.

Romo fractured his back during the third preseason game in Seattle when Seahawks defensive end Cliff Avril tackled the quarterback from behind.

Romo has not been scene publicly since the fractured bone diagnosis.

"I just think he's getting healthier," said head coach Jason Garrett. "Initially, when he had the injury he was pretty immobilized and over the course of the last week or so I just think he's gotten better and better and better. It's healing up. Again, we'll take his situation day-by-day but we're optimistic that he'll have a full recovery."

The early timetable suggested Romo's injury could cost him 8-10 weeks of the season. If that's the case, the Cowboys would put Romo on short term IR and open up a valuable roster spot.

"Given what the injury is and the progress he's made, we feel like at this point we don't want to do that. We don't want to eliminate him from eight weeks of our schedule," said Garrett.