HEADLINES

Cowboys Expect To Trade Tony Romo To Broncos Or Texans

March 9th, 2017 at 1:31pm CST by Zachary Links

1:31pm: The Broncos are not currently shopping Siemian, James Palmer of NFL.com tweets.

1:27pm: Some “backpedal talk” has emerged regarding a Siemian-to-New York trade, Mortensen tweets. But he adds that Romo remains a trade candidate a day after being expected to be released.

1:07pm: The Cowboys now expect to trade Tony Romo to the Broncos or Texans, sources tell Chris Mortensen of ESPN.com (on Twitter). Meanwhile, the Broncos are talking with the Jets about trading Trevor Siemian to New York.

A Broncos trade for Romo would be surprising, a source tells Denver7’s Troy Renck (Twitter link). The Broncos have long been connected to Romo but never via trade until today. For more than a month, reports out of Denver have pegged the Broncos as being willing to look at Romo as a UFA.

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Wednesday, there was word that the Cowboys would be releasing Romo, allowing him to explore free agency. It turns out that the Broncos and Texans are now willing to acquire him via trade. If a deal goes down, it stands to reason that Romo could agree to restructure his deal in order to make things work for the acquiring club.

Romo, 37 in April, has not been healthy for two full seasons. However, he does have four Pro Bowl selections on his resume. In his last healthy season (2014), Romo completed a league-high 69.9% of his passes with 3,705 yards through the air and 34 touchdowns against just nine interceptions.

The Broncos have been telling everyone that they are willing to go into 2017 with Siemian and Paxton Lynch as their quarterbacks. However, the Romo talk has been strong for weeks now and it sounds like they are looking to bring another star QB to Denver. The Broncos brought in Peyton Manning at a time when the world was writing him off and they might be able to find the same success here with Romo. If they do acquire him, it will be interesting to see whether Romo will be put into an open competition with Lynch or given the starting job from the get-go.

Houston has not been as bullish on a Romo acquisition as Denver has been reported to be. Although neither side has exactly been aggressive, word out of Houston was the team was not going to pursue Romo. The two-time reigning AFC South champions, though, did not get close to what they hoped from Brock Osweiler this season. The Texans’ four-year $72MM contract — one that cannot be realistically removed from the payroll until 2018 — now looks like an albatross after the 6-foot-7 passer could not complete his first Houston season without being benched. He returned to the lineup once Tom Savage sustained a concussion and won a playoff game, but Osweiler did not provide many signs he is the future in Houston.

The Cowboys would take a ~$19MM cap hit this year if they were to trade Romo rather than release him. They could not spread it over two years as they could by designating him a post June 1 cut.

The Jets would like to deal for Siemian but they will look hard at Jay Cutler if they cannot pull off a trade with Denver, Mortensen tweets. Right now, Siemian is Plan A, Cutler is Plan B, and it’s not clear what their Plan C might be if both fall through. The Jets, with limited cap space and little chance of contending in 2017, have very few options to address their vacancy under center.

A seventh-round pick out of Northwestern, Siemian has two years and just $1.3MM left on his rookie contract. He completed 59 percent of his passes and led the Broncos to an 8-6 record. But two injuries sidelined him, providing possible durability queries going forward.

Photo via PFR on Instagram.

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