The Dallas Cowboys are the most valuable NFL franchise in the league, but the team has not been very successful in the playoffs over the past decade and for many fans, that falls on the shoulders of quarterback Tony Romo.
Owner Jerry Jones has said that the team would like to sign Romo to an extension, but so far talks between the Cowboys and the quarterback's agent have yet to begin. Statistically Romo has been one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL over the past five years, but the primary goal for the Cowboys is to win championships and not regular seasons.
The biggest issue for Romo and the Cowboys is the fact that he seems to bring his worst performances in the biggest games. For examples, years ago in 2007, the Cowboys had a chance to take the lead late against the Seattle Seahawks in the playoffs after being down 21-20 with 1:19 left in the game. Romo was the holder for the kick and he botched it and before he could make it into the endzone he was tackled and the game ended.
The following year the Cowboys made the playoffs again and played against the division rival Giants, but Romo fell short as he tried to made a comeback, throwing an interception in the end zone with less than a half a minute left to clinch the 21-17 defeat.
In 2009, whcich was the last ime the Cowboys made the playoffs, Romo was solid in his only postseason career win, defeating the Eagles 34-14 after throwing for a 104.9 passer rating, but in the next round against the Minnesota Vikings, Romo was awful, losing two fumbles and an interception while getting sacked six times in a 34-3 blowout.
Romo has one year remaining on his contract, but another sticking point for the Cowboys will be his age. He will be 33 in April and while that is not old, it may deter the Cowboys from giving Romo as many years on the deal as he would like and if the team decides to keep him and a deal cannot be reached, there is a chance they could franchise him next year, but that will mean a high price for one-year deal.
Some other options for the Cowboys include acquiring a new quarterback, someone younger, such as Alex Smith from the San Francisco 49ers or Matt Flynn from the Seattle Seahawks. While both those teams have starting quarterbacks, it could work out well for the Cowboys, as they could take Smith, who is young at 28-years-old and has shown that he can win in the playoffs and in the regular season.
The 49ers had no choice but to start Kaepernick after how good he played, meaning Smith is now the odd man out in Northern California. The same thing can be said about Flynn, who was signed to a big deal in the offseason but was beaten out by Russell Wilson. Either player would give a slight step down in talent in terms of Romo's abilities, but with players like Dez Bryant and Miles Austin on the roster, either quarterback could succeed.
Romo helped Bryant have one of his best seasons and he passed for nearly 5,000 yards and 28 touchdowns while leading the Cowboys to an 8-8 record. For the second time in two seasons, the Cowboys had a chance to win the final game of the season to take the NFC East, but in 2011 they lost to the Giants and in 2012 they lost to the Redskins, with the blame falling on Romo from the fans.
If there aren't significant talks about the extension soon, there is a chance Jerry Jones could get restless and trade his franchise star. Jones has preached changes and so far he has done that, bringing in a new defensive coordinator and other coaches, including Derek Dooley to work with the wideouts.
"Tony is a key piece of what we're about going forward," said Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones to ESPN.com. "We're certainly going to be looking at his situation (in) time. "We've historically (extended contracts) with quarterbacks for the Dallas Cowboys ahead of time. We did it with Troy (Aikman) and we certainly want to look at that with Tony so we can all move forward in terms of how we want to play around our salary cap with our team. Tony is the key piece in terms of how your cap is represented."