Romo considered Gang before CBS
of the Jets Wednesday at the NFL on CBS media day in midtown. “I’m not going to say if they were in the final four, but I did take a look.”
Romo added: “I gave consideration to a lot of teams. I looked at them (the Jets). I looked at film of a bunch of teams. As I got closer, I narrowed the focus to about four teams, and I ended up choosing CBS before I got down to choosing. Just how the process went.”
Romo, 37, entered 2016 as the Cowboys’ starter, but he suffered a fractured vertebrae in the third preseason game. The rest, as they say, is history. Rookie Dak Prescott took over under center and blossomed into one of the rising stars in the league, helping lead Dallas to a 13-3 regular season finish and a playoff berth.
Now Romo will be contributing from the television booth, working alongside Jim Nantz. The duo will be calling the Nov. 2 Thursday Night Football meeting between the Jets and Bills at MetLife Stadium.
Romo has already spent some time breaking down the Gang Green roster, as he called a Jets game as one of his eight practice broadcasts this summer. The former undrafted free agent is willing to give Christian Hackenberg more time to prove his capability.
“When you’re drafted, there’s a timeline that starts. When you’re not drafted, there’s really no timeline. And so I was lucky because you’re not even supposed to make the team, so every time you do, you can just keep developing,” Romo said. “I still believe that quarterbacks improve in that second and third year. If you’re not seeing a pretty good size improvement, I think you know. You can always play and get better. But they probably need a good team around them to be successful. With Hackenberg, it’s still very early. We’re in Year 2. … And so you got to give him this season and maybe the beginning of next season to see some growth, and then you’ll know.”
McCown was named the Jets starter on Monday. Romo believes McCown will be a positive influence on the young team, but he also understands the difficulty for the situation.
“Everyone wants the quarterback of the future and I think everybody wants the guy who’s going to be there for eight to 10 years, gives you hope, gives you excitement. But that coach and that organization are thinking about winning Game 1. They’re thinking about this season, and McCown gives them the best chance for that,” Romo said. “At the same time, they need to be consistent, and it’s hard to be consistent when you don’t have a lot of talented players.”