The fake news surrounding Romo
So this is what it has come to. • Tony Romo. • Texans. • Quarterback. • Even linking the above looks weird and feels odder. • And I mean, seriously: It looks WEIRD.
Of course, the latter two always go together. I can’t go a couple of months — or days during the regular season — without writing about our local NFL team’s endless annual search for The Answer.
And when the pro scouting combine begins this week in Indianapolis, constant Texans general manager Rick Smith and current coach Bill O’Brien will dive into the magical mystery once again, trying to find somebody — heck, anybody — who can finally get this franchise QB thing right once and for all.
Or at least for one full season while Jadeveon Clowney is healthy, J.J. Watt is in his prime, Brian Cushing is around, Romeo Crennel wants to keep barking out X’s and O’s, and Bob McNair’s Texans have a nasty, elite defense that forms one half of a true Super Bowl contender.
Which is why a soon-to-be 37-yearold — who’s started four games the last two seasons, couldn’t get his job back from a rookie in 2016 and holds a Texans-like 2-4 career playoff record — is the saving grace for some of the most QB-desperate fans in NFL history.
I’m saving my true Romo opinion for a later date.
Contrary to what you might have heard all over bad talk radio ever since Tom Brady’s jersey disappeared — it must be hard to professionally discuss anything real, like the Rockets or Astros, when all you can do is bloviate about six months of offseason football — famous No. 9 is a silver-and-blue Cowboy up north owned by Hall of Famer Jerry Jones.
If Romo is released, if the Texans suddenly lust after Dallas’ thrownaway hand-me-down and if the 13-year veteran is willing to take a major pay cut just to hang in Houston with Watt and Clowney — then there’s something real to talk about.
Osweiler’s name surfaces
But the fact that we’re at this point in the days before the combine — fake Romo in Texans red and blue Photoshop images; salary-cap breakdowns and financial projections — says everything about where the Texans are yet again, less than a year after signing someone named Brock Osweiler.
Dear readers, I’ve got to tell you: It’s been a few weeks since I’ve had to type that name. And those sure were some darn refreshing weeks.
Last season’s answer is set to make $16 freaking million this year. If you know anyone in this city who passionately wants Osweiler to be the Texans’ starter again in 2017, please email me immediately (and don’t let that person into your house).
The easiest, most Texans-like path for this franchise to take is to hold Brian Hoyer versus Ryan Mallett, Part II. Have fourth-year Tom Savage and the $72 million man duke it out in pastoral West Virginia this summer, with the winner trying to hold on to his new job as long as humanly possible (or until O’Brien gets cranky and gives it back to the other guy).
Savage also has all of two career starts and has played in five games during his three pro years, so I’m not envisioning McNair, Smith and O’Brien hoisting the next Lombardi Trophy in downtown Minneapolis after the conquest of SB LII.
Casting a net for an ex-Pat?
Savage secretly wearing Brady’s lost jersey underneath his No. 3 all season? Then, maybe. Speaking of those sneaky Pats … . What about Jimmy G? O’Brien’s been down the New England retread path with Hoyer and Mallett, and Garoppolo should be available for the taking at the right inflated price.
It’s hard to see the Texans trading so much for so little that’s proven, though.
And if another Brady backup fails in Houston, that really would mean the end for McNair’s GMand coach.
As always, the draft is the safest and surest way to get it right. Except it never really is, especially at QB and with these Texans.
And I will always question whether McNair has the stomach to lose a little now for the potential of winning big down the road. He hasn’t in 15 seasons, and the annual 9-7 Texans believe they should be better than just back-to-back AFC South champs in 2017.
So maybe we really will be doing this in March. Romo. Texans. Quarterback. It already feels like something straight out of Hollywood. And if it gets a green light, we know what’s coming: The biggest smash of the year or a total bomb.