Cowboys still deciding whether to place Tony Romo on short-term IR
The Cowboys still are deciding whether to place Tony Romo on short-term injured reserve next week. That would take the starting quarterback out for the first eight weeks of the season.
Romo’s compression fracture in his back needs 6-10 weeks to heal, so it’s possible the Cowboys keep Romo on the active roster hoping for a return earlier than the Nov. 6 game against the Browns.
“We’re certainly getting our hands around it,” Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said Wednesday after the team’s annual Kickoff Luncheon benefitting Happy Hill Farm. “We’ll be needing to make that decision obviously sometime later in the weekend. Whatever we do with him, he’ll need to be on our 53 when we cut it on Friday. So you’ve got to have him through the 53 cut before you can put him on designated to return, if we wanted to consider that. But it may be that we just keep him on the roster. We’ll just see.”
Romo has not played all 16 games in a season since 2012 and missed 12 games last season, twice fracturing his collarbone. This is his third back injury since 2013.
But the Cowboys have faith Romo will return to full strength this season.
“He’s very driven, driven to do what it takes to get back,” Jones said.
“We’ve really done a lot of research on this, and I think this was a very freak accident. It’s unfortunate for Tony that he has some of these things, but I think the last thing in the world we’re worried about with Tony is being fragile. Everybody saw the hit and the tackle. It was awkward. I think most doctors would tell you that whoever that would have been would have had a hard time coming through that without some sort of injury.
“He is undeterred, and he really believes that this team does have a different mindset with him not being here and that we can win games and when he does get back, he’s ready to make a run. I think Tony is more prepared to have success in this league than he’s ever been. The key word, as he well knows, is he’s got to stay healthy and he’s got to be able to play, but if he does that, mentally and his knowledge of this game and what our offense is about, I think is the best it’s ever been. So we just look forward to winning some football games as we move forward. When Tony gets back, the team will be ready for him.”
This story was originally published August 31, 2016 at 3:31 PM with the headline "Cowboys still deciding whether to place Tony Romo on short-term IR."