Tony Romo will be on a ‘pitch count’ during next week’s OTAs

The Dallas Cowboys passed on former Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel when their No. 16 overall pick came up in the 2014 NFL Draft. The Cowboys remained committed to Tony Romo and showed their faith in him despite two consecutive offseasons that included back surgery.

“We feel like Tony is really essentially in the prime of his career,” head coach Jason Garrett said in early May right before the draft, via Jon Machota of the Dallas Morning News. “He’s 34 years old. He didn’t start until I think Year 4, so he’s been a guy who has played six or seven years now as a starting quarterback. To me, he’s a very young player. He moves around really well. He hasn’t lost any mobility, ability to get away from people.

“I think his arm is better than ever, so we don’t look at him despite his back situation that he’s had over the last couple of years as somebody who is an old player by any means. He simply needs to rehab his back and get himself healthy and get going again.

“We feel like Tony Romo has a lot of years of great football left in him.”

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Well as the Cowboys enter another season with Romo recovering from back surgery, they’re going to put him in a situation to succeed. Romo revealed in an interview with ESPN.com that he would on a “pitch count” to ensure that he didn’t over exert himself and aggravate the injury.

“I’m getting close,” Romo told ESPN.com. “We’re just going to be smart during the OTAs and have a little bit of a pitch count but we’re going to go out there each day and try to do all that we can. The guys are working hard and doing great and I think we’re going to be ready.”

“A lot of it’s going to be determined by how good I feel,” Romo added. “Like any injury you go out and try to do everything, but if you have to throttle back then you do that or if you’re feeling good you push forward. What you set up in the beginning is based on what you’ve been doing and from there you keep pressing on and keep getting more and more done.”

The Cowboys have put all their eggs in Romo’s basket, so they need him to be healthy and help this season get over the 8-8 hump this year.