Tony Romo retires, leaving the Texans holding the bag
Tony Romo is headed to the broadcast booth, and the Houston Texans are headed to second place in the AFC South after a colossal miscalculation.
On April 4, Tony Romo decided to step away from the NFL after 14 seasons.
His only mistake was not retiring three days earlier, giving the Houston Texans an opportunity to celebrate their holiday.
With all the chaos of Romo retiring and reportedly replacing NFL on CBS lead analyst Phil Simms in the broadcast booth, the most important on-field storyline was largely ignored. With Romo exiting stage left, the Texans are now left on center stage, pants around ankles, spotlights on.
Houston worked this entire offseason to be ready for a championship run, one that hinged on landing Romo as the new starting quarterback. The oft-injured 37-year-old was to be general manager Rick Smith’s big bet. Smith couldn’t have been more clear without uttering a word, dealing Brock Osweiler and his ugly contract to the Cleveland Browns. More importantly, Houston also dealt a sixth-round selection this April and a 2018 second-round pick to Cleveland, netting a fourth-round choice in return.
All of this was to clear cap space and a roster spot for Romo. Now, Houston is left with Tom Savage as the incumbent, a man who was benched after a concussion in Week 17 following his insertion two weeks prior into the starting role.
Savage, a 2014 fourth-round pick entering the final year of his contract, has thrown 92 career passes. He’s still looking for his first touchdown. Whether or not he remains even the mildest of upgrades over the woeful Osweiler remains to be seen. What is certain is that without Romo in tow, Houston has no shot of going to the Super Bowl.
The Texans will likely aim to spin the blunder of dealing Osweiler. They will leak that a move was coming anyway because he couldn’t co-exist with head coach Bill O’Brien. Know that it is nonsense. Houston could — and should — have either benched or started Osweiler for one more season, retained its second-round pick and then cut bait for almost no dead money come January.
Instead, Houston is without a valuable commodity in a draft that is projected to be robust with quarterbacks.
Without Romo, the Texans now see their hand forced. With the 325th-overall pick, Smith has to draft a quarterback. The options range from Mitchell Trubisky, Patrick Mahomes, DeShone Kizer and Deshaun Watson. All come with real question marks, and none are guaranteed to fall that far.
Houston has a championship-caliber defense, although the free agency loss of A.J. Bouye doesn’t help. Unfortunately, the offense is a first-class mess at the most important position in sports. It’s not a stretch to consider Houston the third-best team in its own division, despite the presence of J.J. Watt, Whitney Mercilus and Jadeveon Clowney.
Smith shouldn’t have dealt the second-round pick unless he was certain of landing Romo. Now, he’s an April Fool come three days late, hoping a man named Savage can give him a wonder year.