Tony Romo will hit free agency as the Dallas Cowboys are set to release him, setting the stage for the Houston Texans to pay big money for the quarterback.
Adam Schefter’s report that the Dallas Cowboys will be releasing Tony Romo is not necessarily a surprise. That said, it does immediately up the intrigue in 2017 free agency as a few teams will scramble for his services. One of those teams will be the Houston Texans—and no price should be too high.
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With a championship window open and the league’s top defense already in place, the Texans are poised to be the most competitive team in the NFL if they can get the quarterback situation settled. Unfortunately, with Tom Savage and Brock Osweiler headlining, the position is far from set.
Enter Tony Romo. The franchise-leading Cowboys passer is being forced out because of the emergence of 2016 rookie sensation Dak Prescott, but still has plenty left in the tank to lead a team ready for a championship run to the promised land.
That team does not necessarily need to be the Texans, however. Other quarterback needy teams, particularly the Denver Broncos, also feature enough talent to make a deep playoff run or a chance at the Lombardi Trophy.
Cowboys are releasing Tony Romo on Thursday, sources tell @toddarcher and me.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 8, 2017
Let the Romo recruiting in Houston and Denver begin.
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With that in mind, the Texans should spare no cost in going after Romo. With Osweiler on the roster, there’s plenty of cap space that can be opened up in future years (Osweiler’s dead cap in 2017 is $25 million but just $8 million in 2018, per Spotrac), enabling the Texans to swing for the fences for Romo without being too concerned about limiting themselves in the coming years.
With just under $23.5 million in cap space this year (per Spotrac), the Texans can afford to offer Romo plenty of money, structured well over the next four seasons. Romo was set to make $14 million, $19.5 million, and $20 million in base salary with the Cowboys over the next three seasons under his current six-year, $108 million deal. Assuming he is paid in the $14 million to $20 million range for three or four more seasons, Romo’s hit on the cap could be tough to structure but still be feasible.
This puts the Texans in a bit of a bind. If mediocre quarterback Mike Glennon does set the quarterback market in 2017 free agency and commands $14 million per year, as suggested by Mike Garofolo, Romo could get expensive. In that case, without offloading players, the Texans may be outbid by a team like he Broncos ($36.3 million in cap space).
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If the Texans hope to land Tony Romo, they need to give them their best offer up front. It will be expensive and it will likely put the team in a financial squeeze (at least until Osweiler can be offloaded), but it will be worth it.