Dallas Cowboys Rumors: The Tony Romo Era Is Officially Over, Dak Prescott Takes Over As Full-Time Starter

The Dallas Cowboys may have reached the end of the Tony Romo era, with rumors that the longtime quarterback is ready to step aside and let Dak Prescott become the full-time starter.

Romo has missed the entire season with a broken bone in his back, now the second season in a row in which he’s missed extended time. There had already been questions about Romo’s long-term viability as a starter, and those are compounded now with Prescott’s quick ascent to one of the league’s sharpest quarterback. The rookie has led the team to an NFL-best 7-1 record through eight games and has what has a blunted offense last season clicking on all cylinders this year.

There have already been rumors that the Dallas Cowboys were leading toward keeping Dak Prescott as the starter once Romo is healthy again, and those plans may now be confirmed. NFL Network‘s Ian Rapoport reported on Sunday that Romo is willing to stay on the bench once he’s cleared to play.

There could be a practical element to the plans. Tony Romo has been out of action for more than a year with this year’s injury combined with last year’s hiatus, and will likely need some adjustment before he’s back to 100 percent throwing the ball. Prescott, on the other hand, is arguably the league’s hottest quarterback.

“I think it’s all just stages, getting the guys closer and ready to play in a game,” said Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett said (via the Dallas News). “Tony hasn’t played in a game in nearly a year, 50 weeks. So you want to get a guy out there again and again and again moving around with people around him.”

There are some other rumors on exactly how the Dallas Cowboys could play the situation once Tony Romo returns. Pro Football Talk speculated that the team could possibly rotate both quarterbacks, the same way the Arizona Cardinals did in 2007 with Matt Leinart and Kurt Warner. But that is an unpopular tactic in the NFL, and usually used as a stopgap when one or both quarterbacks are struggling — exactly the opposite situation in Dallas with Dak Prescott.

In an interview with PFT Live, Cowboys executive vice president and chief operating officer Stephen Jones said the team won’t be making any hard and fast plans about when they might pull Dak Prescott and insert Tony Romo.

“We obviously feel good about what our team’s doing right now but at the same time when you got a great player like Tony, if you feel like he could infuse some energy and pull something out for you that maybe things aren’t going your way then certainly that’s a coaching decision that can be made by Jason and Scott [Linehan],” he said. “Right now, we’re focused on being positive and looking not past Pittsburgh at this point and we’ll just kinda take each day one day at a time.”

It could be difficult to see the Dallas Cowboys inserting Tony Romo for any reason beyond an unforeseen injury to Dak Prescott. The rookie quarterback has completed 66.5 percent of his passes and has 12 touchdowns. But more importantly, he has done an excellent job taking care of the ball, with just two interceptions.

While there have been some rumors that the Dallas Cowboys could be looking to trade Tony Romo and gain as much of a return as possible, that seems unlikely given the team’s woes last season. After Romo went down in the 2015 season, the Cowboys struggled with a revolving door of underwhelming backups, including Matt Cassel and Brandon Weeden. If there was ever an example of the need for a solid backup quarterback in the NFL today, the 2015 Dallas Cowboys would be it.

[Featured Image by Tom Pennington/Getty Images]