You don't need me to tell you that Tony Romo is an extremely annoying player. Indeed, the afterglow from the Cowboys' whipping of the Bills this past weekend is tainted by the inevitability of yet another Romo collapse somewhere down the line. But any Cowboys fan hoping to divest themselves of Romo forever should take a look at this week's opponent when they consider the alternatives. Because the Redskins are a textbook example of what happens to a team when it has NOTHING at quarterback.
You know your quarterback situation is dire when you willingly start Rex Grossman despite knowing that he's good for three turnovers a game. It remains baffling to both Redskins fans and the larger football world why Washington went into this season with only Grossman and John Beck competing for the starting job. The current flip-flop that Mike Shanahan is doing with both quarterbacks was all but an inevitability. And now that the Redskins have wasted an entire season with these two, you can feel the hopelessness of Redskins fans. The words "rock bottom" have been used many times on DC radio stations this week, and that's a heavy term to use when your team has been through the kind of decade the Redskins have just had.
That brings us to Romo. While Jerry Jones rocks the rose-colored glasses when addressing Romo's failures, he is smart enough to know that Romo, for all his issues, is still a legitimate NFL-caliber starting quarterback. He completes nearly 65% of his passes. His TD:INT ratio is better than 2:1. His QB rating is near 100. And while that stat is arbitrarily compiled, a QB with a rating near or over 100 is usually a very good one. There is a clear demarcation on the league between teams that have a QB and teams that don't, and having Romo in the fold means the Cowboys have their biggest personnel issue settled.
If they were to get rid of Romo, it would be in favor of a draftee, or free agent scrap like Jason Campbell. Neither of those options are as palatable as trying to see if Romo, who is already good, can get his act together and become something more. Deion Sanders noted early this year that Romo wasn't a trustworthy QB. And that's true. But the options beyond him are even MORE unreliable. So when you watch the Cowboys play the Redskins this weekend, do take a moment to appreciate Romo is all his maddening beauty. Trust me, if you've seen Rex Grossman, you know there are far worse options.
