Tony Romo retires: 5 reasons it hurts Cowboys

Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo has decided to hang up the spikes and call it a career. Here are five reasons this only hurts the 2017 Cowboys.

After 13 years with the team, former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo has decided to retire from football before the 2017 NFL season. For years, Romo brought stability to the Cowboys quarterback position. He went to four Pro Bowls, completed 65.3 percent of his passes for 34,183 yards, 248 touchdowns and 117 interceptions.

Romo had his best years in the NFL when Dallas was still trying to find itself. His competitiveness in duress made him beloved by Cowboys Nation. However, being limited to only five regular season games combined in the last two years was a telling sign that Romo’s days of playing in the NFL were coming to an end.

Though he could have played for another year or two, Romo’s decision to retire as a career Cowboy was a good move for him. While he begins what should be a promising career in the broadcast booth, here are five reasons Romo’s retirement is not a good thing for the Cowboys heading into 2017.

5. Loss of injury protection

While Romo had been particularly brittle the last two NFL seasons, he at worst offered reliable protection as a backup quarterback for the Cowboys in 2017. He wasn’t up for a diminished role with Dallas, so retiring from football was totally understandable on his behalf.

However, his decision to hang up the spikes makes the Cowboys quarterback cupboard particularly bare heading into 2017. Dallas has a solid starter in second-year pro Dak Prescott, but only has southpaw Kellen Moore backing him up in the Dallas quarterback room. Keep in mind that Moore was initially No. 2 on the Dallas quarterback depth chart last year before breaking his leg in the preseason.

Moore is a suitable backup/spot starter in this league, but how will that leg hold up? One would have to suspect that Dallas will not dive face-first into the backup quarterback market in the wake of Romo’s retirement. The Cowboys could go after free agents like Jay Cutler, Robert Griffin III, Colin Kaepernick and Johnny Manziel. However, any of those four would be pure distraction in the Dallas locker room.

Should any of those four quarterbacks play well in spring ball or the preseason, they could close the gap on Prescott should he struggle for whatever reason in year two. Dallas could look to go with a certain backup that won’t challenge Prescott, but the Cowboys may end up with a Matt Cassel-level player. Do they really want that again?

The Cowboys could look to draft another quarterback this spring to find a backup, but what round is worth a selection? Prescott was a fourth round pick. Presumably Dallas can’t take a quarterback above a fourth-round grade on principle alone. Should that rookie succeed in camp, all that does is make Prescott look more like a system quarterback. Another year of Romo backing him up would have been huge for Prescott’s continued development.