Tony Romo to Jacksonville Would Actually Make Some Sense

The NFL Draft Combine has largely come and gone (the defensive backs finish today) with a lot less fanfare than in past years. There are a variety of attributable factors to that. People are watching politics instead of ancillary sports content. The NFL Industrial Complex was due to slow down a bit even before that. There are a bunch of quarterbacks who deserve to be picked in the first two rounds this year, but no slam dunk superstar prospects.

Consequently, the NFL story that gets the most traction in conversations is the future of Tony Romo. Romo, if he could somehow stay healthy, would be an asset for a quarterback-needy team, of which there are always many. Late last week, Ian Rapoport floated the possibility of Romo going to Washington, Kirk Cousins going to San Francisco to reunite with Kyle Shanahan, and the Cowboys getting draft picks. This scenario didn’t make a whole lot of sense, because a) it’s hard to see Dallas trading Romo within the division, and b) Romo’s contract is so nearly un-tradable that it’s hard to imagine the Cowboys getting multiple picks in return, unless they are both very late in the draft.

ESPN’s Todd Archer has a piece today that names five possible destinations:

"In private discussions with executives and coaches from teams across the league, Romo’s future destination kept coming back to two teams: the Denver Broncos and Houston Texans. Others mentioned the Kansas City Chiefs, San Francisco 49ers and even the Jacksonville Jaguars."

The Broncos and Texans both make a lot of sense. We have no idea whether Trevor Siemian or Paxton Lynch will ever develop for Denver, and we know that Houston’s best course of action now is to cut their losses with Brock Osweiler.

Kansas City makes marginal sense — Alex Smith isn’t a longterm answer, but you’d have to have a very serious conversation about whether getting rid of his consistency is worth Romo’s injury risk. San Francisco has so many needs. John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan have longterm job security with their contracts. Romo is a win-now guy. He wouldn’t seem on the surface to make a lot of sense for them.

Jacksonville as a dark-horse does make some sense when you think about it. Blake Bortles regressed last year to the point where it’s very uncertain as to whether he is their quarterback going forward. Allen Robinson is a formidable receiver, who went from 1400+ receiving yards in 2015 to under 900 last year, and could conceivably return to form with a better passer.

While going to Denver or Houston — and, as we keep saying, a remarkably clean bill of health — would give Romo a better chance to win a Super Bowl than Jacksonville, there are certainly worse fits out there for him.