NFC East Roundup: Should Tony Romo Be Benched?
Dak Prescott and Tony Romo. (USA Today Sports)
There’s plenty of talk about quarterbacks in this week’s spin around the NFC East:
Brett Favre thinks Tony Romo should bench himself until Dak Prescott starts struggling, according to the Dallas Morning News.
Favre also had an interesting take on how Tony Romo should handle his return from injury, suggesting he urge the Cowboys not to sub him in until Prescott starts to struggle.
“I try to put myself in Tony’s shoes. I’m sure Tony wants to play. I mean, he doesn’t want to get injured, he wants to be productive, but you have to look at the dynamics right now. And [the Cowboys] really are hitting on all cylinders. So, this is hypothetically thinking, if you are Tony you say, ‘You know what, as much as I want to play, I don’t want to press the issue.’ I want to play but I’m going to let it play out right now and it is probably better if Dak starts struggling and then they bring me in rather than they put me in and then all of a sudden we’re not hitting on all cylinders and everyone’s like, ‘Ah, they should have got rid of Tony, blah, blah.’
“I’m not saying that you tell [Jason] Garrett or Jerry Jones, ‘Look, I don’t want to play.’ I think, you want to play but I don’t want to mess up the dynamics of the team. If we get to a point where we’re struggling, then it is time for me to come in. Now, I know that’s a hard thing to do. … I just think you are better if you wait until you are really needed. And I mean no disrespect whatsoever to Tony.”
It’s more likely Romo won’t return for action until the week after the Cowboys play the Eagles, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Clarence Hill.
It has long been speculated that the target date for Tony Romo’s return from the fractured bone in his back was the Oct. 30 match-up against the Philadelphia Eagles following the next week’s bye.
That put it right at the eight-to-nine week scenario from the original injury date of Aug. 25.
Still, the date has always been a moving target and its now looking more like the Nov. 6 game against the Cleveland Browns, per a source.
After spending recent weeks trying to persuade volatile wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. to behave like a professional on and off the field, the Giants now have to teach offensive tackle Ereck Flowers how to deal with adversity after he told a reporter, “Get the (expletive) out of my face” during a postgame interview session, and then shoved him.
It was an ugly footnote to the 23-16 loss to the Packers at Green Bay on Sunday night, dropping the Giants to 2-3 after winning their opening two games of the season. Head coach Ben McAdoo confirmed he spoke with Flowers, the Giants’ 6-foot-6, 329-pound left tackle, about the incident, as did general manager Jerry Reese and members of the Giants public relations department. McAdoo said Flowers called ESPN reporter Jordan Raanan to apologize.
“He understands that he cannot behave that way,” McAdoo said during a conference call Monday. “It’s unacceptable. It’s important for us all to have a professional relationship with the media: players and coaches.” He added any discipline would be handled “in house.”
Eli Manning says his poor play has nothing to do with his age, reports Seth Walder of the New York Daily News.
With the Giants (2-3) in dead last in the NFC East, they can’t afford for Manning to be as inaccurate as he was against the Packers. In that game, Manning completed 18 of 35 passes for 199 yards and a touchdown, along with a quarterback rating of 78.2. That came following a bad game against a tough Vikings defense and a loss to Washington in which Manning threw two picks.
Those on the outside have to wonder if this is the start of Manning’s decline. He’s 35 years old, and while his older brother lasted longer than that, there’s no way to know when aging will have an effect on the Giants’ QB. Don’t tell him though: because Manning was quick to dismiss that notion on Tuesday.
“No, I don’t think so. I feel good,” he said when asked if his age was becoming a factor.
Kirk Cousins deserves a $16-$18 million annual salary, but he hasn’t done enough for $24 million-plus per year, writes the Washington Post’s Mike Jones.
I could see the Redskins making a modest offer (by starting quarterback standards), and basically saying, “Take it or leave it.” By modest, I’m saying in that $16 million-to-$18 million range for an annual salary. For now, Cousins hasn’t done enough to justify a deal that would pay him $24 million-plus per year.
At this point, while he has done some good things, I don’t think he has consistently offered a body of work that Colt McCoy isn’t capable of duplicating. But again, it’s early. Cousins certainly could hit his stride in the second half of the season. If he does and plays in those last eight games at the same level that we saw in the final nine games of last season, and the Redskins reach the playoffs again, he would seemingly have played his way into a handsome contract.
Jay Gruden won’t rule out IR for first-round pick Josh Doctson, says the Washington Post’s Liz Clarke.
After declaring rookie wide receiver Josh Doctson out for a third consecutive game, Redskins Coach Jay Gruden said there was no thought at the moment of putting the team’s first-round draft pick on injured reserve. But Gruden didn’t rule out the move, either, intimating that it would be the prudent option if Doctson’s puzzling Achilles ailment refuses to heal.
“Not right now,” Gruden said, asked whether there was a possibility that Doctson could be placed on injured reserve, “just because the results on the MRI exam and stuff haven’t been that bad.”
After explaining that Doctson continues to feel pain in the tendon during explosive movements, Gruden said, “That [injured reserve] might come up later on, if the [MRI] results change. But right now there’s no thought.”
The 6-feet-2, 202-pound Doctson, whom the Redskins chose with the 22nd pick in April’s NFL draft, caught one ball in each of the first two games this season. But he hasn’t played since because the activity seemed to aggravate the tightness and discomfort in his Achilles’, which sidelined him for training camp and the preseason.