With Tony Romo Rumor Season Officially Underway, Trust No One

With the start of free agency about to begin, another date that wasn’t officially on the league calendar has arrived: Tony Romo Rumor Season. Sure, it started at a low-level hum in previous weeks, and Ian Rapoport got it going a little bit with a ludicrous 3-way trade “leak” last week. Today, though, it is exploding.

Trust and believe no one, because there are so many competing interests and ancillary figures who may use Romo rumors to advance their own agendas. Lots of quarterback decisions revolve around what happens with Romo, so you have not only the principals (Romo and his agent, and the Dallas Cowboys), but a variety of other teams and agents looking to drive interest or poison the well.

Chris Mortensen sent this out:

He soon sent a follow-up appearing to walk that back.

So who was behind that? Maybe Trevor Siemian’s agent floating something to drum up interest in his client moving? Could also be someone from Dallas trying to get someone to bid against themselves. That launched an avalanche of counter-leaks:

Of course, Dallas would prefer you trade for him and avoid the cap hit penalty resulting from a release. Other teams, meanwhile, don’t want that contract but would love to have Romo.

That comes directly opposite earlier reporting that Dallas would be waiving him today.

Jerry Jones has a motivation of appearing to “do the right thing” while having built his entire career on driving hard bargains and sharp deals. So you have that balancing act with some leaks. Romo wants to get his choice of options, and be able to go to his top team. Other quarterbacks (and their agents) may either want to sink the deal or set their client up for a move. Other teams want to avoid trading, unless they know they need to in order to secure Romo.

It’s gonna be a wild ride, and believe nothing, until someone officially reports that he is signing or being traded to a team, with no couching and sources say talk.