Should Dallas Cowboys Play Tony Romo? - ESPN First Take
By Jori Epstein , Staff writer Contact Jori Epstein on Twitter:
Cowboys owner and general managerJerry Jones started his postgame remarks with a strong stance on the Dallas quarterback situation: There"s no benefit in playing Tony Romo vs. Philadelphia next week in Dallas" last regular-season game.
"We don"t feel like any game we"d get from him stepping out there running some plays, several plays, a series of plays would be worth the risk," Jones said. "I think we pretty much stay to plan. It wouldn"t surprise me to see us get some of the same snaps."
Jones billed the decision as a defensive one, hoping to guard the team from injuries ahead of the postseason.
"All we need to do is really not try to push... any of our players to go beyond the norm relative to play and hurt," he said. "We don"t need to do that in Philadelphia."
Jones also said he didn"t get nervous, "not at all," when Prescott was hit during Monday night"sgame vs. Detroit. He said he thought the offensive unit "came through good" avoiding injuries in a 42-21 win over Detroit that had no bearing on playoffs.
The contest vs. Philadelphia next week, too, won"t change that the Cowboys have securedhome-field advantage and the top seed in the NFC through the playoffs.
And in those playoffs, Jones said, he would trust Romo to come in even if he hasn"t seen the fieldduring the regular season.
"We"re just not concerned about him having play time," Jones continued about Romo. "But sure wouldn"t want him to get any time other than playing behind our first.
Jones considered for a moment "if the situation came up to play behind the first" but qualified that playing games like Monday "made Dak a better quarterback."
"He played very well," Jones said. "He really made some good decisions so you don"t want to miss those reps. I keep going back to that and it sounds like you"re talking about a preseason game but these reps are so valuable for him to get.
"And of course we"re getting into a situation up there in Philadelphia that could emulate the hostility of an away field some place in the playoffs [like Houston for the Super Bowl].
"The whole point is [Dak"s] learning from this and we"ll keep that up."
When asked whether he worried about Romo being ready to play if Dak got hurt in the playoffs, Jones didn"t hesitate.
"Not at all," he said. "We"ve got the look on Tony and we"ve got all the reps and we"re seeing him work at practice and that"s enough.
"I have a very good feel for how he could do."
So who will backup Prescott on Sunday? At first, Jones said he saw "no reason why we shouldn"t go with the way we looked this week." But when asked specifically if third-string quarterback Mark Sanchez would be activated for the first time in weeks, Jones began to hesitate.
"It"s just that we haven"t thought about that and you are a little bit different next week," Jones said. "It"s another week down the road and you"ve got a little like your last preseason game before you go into it.
"That does get a little dicey if in 10 days you"re going to play a game. On the other hand, to have gotten Dak all these snaps tonight, for him to play like he played against Detroit, I think he"s a better quarterback."
Growing Dak is his main goal, Jones said.
"You make a big case for [Dak] playing against Philadelphia to be a better quarterback," Jones said.
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Source: http://sportsday.dallasnews.com/dallas-cowboys/cowboys/2016/12/26/jerry-jones-dak-prescott-will-start-vs-eagles-worth-risking-tony-romo
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