Once again, the first round of the draft has come and gone and the Dallas Cowboys did not take a quarterback. Yes, Tony Romo is in the midst of a monster-sized contract extension. No, he will not play forever. The Cowboys looked to be serious contenders for a quarterback in the first round, speaking highly of several options. However, the team took lineman Zack Martin at No. 16 as Jerry Jones says a quarterback was never in the cards.
Johnny Manziel was predicted to be their "guy." Jones was reportedly prepared to make a move for the former Texas A&M star if he dropped out of the first round. The cards started to fall that way. Manziel was plummeting in the draft and was still on the board come time for Dallas to pick. It seemed like the easy prediction keeping the Texas A&M star in Texas, but the Cowboys passed and were apparently never looking to make the move in the first place.
"Romo, by contract as well as by commitment, is going to be certainly the quarterback for several years to come," Jones said, via Todd Archer of ESPNDallas.com. "Don't care who we drafted, that's the way it was going to be. So that's what was going through our minds. That's why we didn't spend a lot of time considering Manziel."
Manziel would have been the flashy pick for Dallas, the big personality quarterback pairing up with the big personality owner. It seemed like a match made in media heaven and something Jones would have loved. However, the owner told the media in his post-draft press conference that he was told Dallas had all the personality it needed and he did not need to draft based on that alone.
"John Madden once told me when I was telling him about this idea of personalities and being involved with the Dallas Cowboys," Jones said. "He said, ‘Jerry, the Cowboys have all the flash, have all the visibility that you could ever conjure up. Make your decisions, get the best players and coaches that win the games. You got all the rest you'd want. You don't need to have big-time flash to be involved in the NFL and be successful in the league.' I've always remembered that. No, frankly that [picking Manziel] wasn't even a thought. This was such an obvious football, . . . decision."
The Cowboys could still use a quarterback. Romo is the starter while Brandon Weeden, Chad Hanie and Kyle Orton will battle to back him up. However those last three options are not the future in Dallas, at all. Orton has not shown up to offseason workouts. Hanie is signed to a minimum deal. Weeden will be lucky if he sees an entire season on the roster. The Cowboys could draft a late-round option like AJ McCarron or Aaron Murray to begin developing.
