Tony or Dak? There’s no question for Jimmy Johnson
While the Dallas Cowboys don’t have a full-fledged quarterback controversy on their hands yet, there is a healthy debate brewing:
Do you stick with Dak Prescott, the interceptionless rookie sensation who has led the team to a 3-1 record, or do you saddle up with the bent but unbroken veteran Tony Romo once he’s ready in a few weeks?
A couple of football sages have weighed in with their unique perspectives.
Jimmy Johnson, Fox analyst and former Super Bowl winning coach for the Cowboys, told ESPN’s Colin Cowherd on Tuesday that he isn’t ready to guzzle the Prescott Kool-Aid.
Jimmy Johnson on starting Romo over Dak: Cowboys defense isn't good enough vs. great teams to live with their offensive approach right now. pic.twitter.com/DFRhKC4k4U
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) October 4, 2016
He believes the Cowboys aren’t good enough defensively to beat the better teams in the league, and he believes Romo gives them the added big play ability that Prescott just hasn’t shown yet. Cowherd agreed (We’ll get a better idea Sunday, when the Cowboys face the Cincinnati Bengals at AT&T Stadium.)
But Drew Bledsoe, who has firsthand knowledge of what it’s like to lose your starting quarterback job to injury and to a younger player, recently weighed in on the topics of mortality and reality in the NFL.
“When you’re young in the league -- when you’re young in life -- you think you’re 10-foot tall and bulletproof,” said Bledsoe, via NFL.com. “You think nobody can ever replace you, and that you’re gonna be the guy forever. Eventually, you learn the lesson that it’s a replacement business.”
In 2001, Tom Brady took over for an injured Bledsoe at quarterback for the New England Patriots, and Bledsoe never got his job back. Brady led the Patriots that year to the first of his four Super Bowl wins.
In 2006, at halftime of a Monday night game against the New York Giants, Bledsoe was replaced as the starting QB for the Cowboys by Tony Romo, whose first pass would be tipped and intercepted. But Romo would ultimately become the starter -- and the star of stars in Dallas.
Now, 10 years and multiple back surgeries later, Romo is facing the same painful scenario Bledsoe remembers all too well.
“Sometimes that hits you right between the eyes, which is what happened to me with (Tom) Brady, and again with Tony. It happens to all of us,” Bledsoe told NFL.com. “I don’t know if it’s the time for Tony, but it’s something that every quarterback has to confront.”
This story was originally published October 5, 2016 at 12:01 AM with the headline "Tony or Dak? There’s no question for Jimmy Johnson."