Another no-Romo contestant? Kansas City Chiefs sticking with Alex Smith

Dallas Cowboys backup quarterback Tony Romo keeps running into February roadblocks on his path to full employment and his Jerry Jones-scripted Super Bowl destiny in the National Football League.

It’s only February, despite the October temperatures in Texas, and the league lunar new year is March 9, when free agency begins, and we have minicamps, training camps and a whole injury-fraught preseason ahead before the September start date.

Romo’s four preferred teams, according to a report recently from CBSsports.com, were initially the Houston Texans, Arizona Cardinals, Denver Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs.

On Thursday, however, Chiefs general manager John Dorsey was asked about Tony Romo speculation.

“First off, I‘m not going to talk about another team’s player and I think it’s not prudent for me to talk about that, so with that being said I won’t talk about it,” Dorsey said.

And he endorsed Chiefs starting quarterback Alex Smith.

“We’ve said all along he is the starter — I don’t know what more you want to say,” Dorsey said, via the Kansas City Star. “He’s led this franchise to three playoff seasons out of four, which is pretty good in my eyes.”

Romo, of course, is still under contract, emphasis on “under,” to the Cowboys, to the tune of a $24.7 million salary cap hit. The Romo-to-Chiefs scenario had been reported along the line that Chiefs coach Andy Reid was not enthralled with Smith and another playoff loss, and that Smith and his $7 million salary could be part of a trade somewhere.

Meantime, newly minted Pro Football Hall of Famer Kurt Warner, who got back to the Super Bowl after being released by the Rams following the 2003 season, weighed in on Romo during Super Bowl week.

“It sounds great,” Warner said, as quoted by The Washington Post, of teams going for Romo. “If you get a healthy Tony Romo, yeah, he’s better than three-fourths of the guys in the league. It’s just a matter of can he stay healthy and how long do you get him and in whatever window you have, can you reach that level?”

Also on Thursday, Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer confirmed he would return for a 15th season.

On Tuesday, new Broncos coach Vance Joseph said his team is committed to choosing between Trevor Siemian and Paxton Lynch as the starting quarterback for 2017.

That leaves the Texans still standing on Romo’s reported four preferred teams. After that there are plenty of other quarterback-needy teams: the New York Jets, Chicago Bears, Buffalo Bills, Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers.

ESPN analyst Louis Riddick said Thursday on “SportsCenter” that he believes the Bears, despite a 3-13 season in 2016, “may be closer than people think” to turning things around, and has done upgrades on the offensive line.

“I think Chicago is one of those places that will be looked at very heavily,” Riddick said.

The Cowboys would seem unlikely to keep Romo, even under a restructured contract that would load more salary-cap misery onto the future, and even with the Cowboys needing a backup quarterback for Dak Prescott, whose sensational rookie season ends any debate on whom the starter should be.

Dallas can try to trade Romo and his $14 million salary for a draft pick or picks, or can release him, save $5 million on the salary cap, and let him be on the open market.

As for what Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones will do, Riddick said he thinks Jones “because of his personal relationship probably cares for and fears for Tony’s health. So you don’t want to send him where the offensive line is in a state of flux” or where “he’s going to get hurt.”

And, said Riddick, the Cowboys shouldn’t keep Romo because “you don’t need that type of drama” with the “spectre of Romo” in the background for Prescott.

For Romo, “the teams that need him aren’t that close,” to a turnaround, Riddick said, “It’s going to be a tough situation, tougher than people realize.”

Jones said Tuesday on his 105.3 The Fan radio show, channeling Lyndon Johnson: “We WILL work through this.”

This story was originally published February 9, 2017 at 8:20 PM with the headline "Another no-Romo contestant? Kansas City Chiefs sticking with Alex Smith."