ARLINGTON, Texas – There will be a time and a place to discuss Tony Romo's future with the Dallas Cowboys, but Jerry Jones made it clear he's not ready to do that just yet.
"We don't need to get into that tonight," said the Cowboys owner/general manager in the moments following his team's 34-31 loss to Green Bay.
There are a lot of unknowns to discuss in the wake of the Cowboys' postseason exit. As they head into the offseason, chief among those is the future of Romo, who saw himself supplanted as the team's starting quarterback this season.
It's a testament to the craziness of the Cowboys' season that Romo's future is in doubt. The four-time Pro Bowler has 133 career starts, 35,499 career yards and 256 career touchdowns, and he turns 37 in April.
Most importantly, he hasn't started a regular season game for the Cowboys since November 2015, as rookie quarterback Dak Prescott grabbed the starting position while he recovered from a broken vertebrae in his back.
It's long been speculated that Romo's future lies elsewhere after this season. It seems unlikely such an accomplished passer would want to be Prescott's backup going forward, and it seems even more unlikely the Cowboys want to pay a $24 million cap hit for a quarterback who isn't starting games for them.
But again, whatever the future holds, Jones said he's not ready to make that determination.
"We won't do it tomorrow. We won't do it the next day," he said. "We'll be looking at where we are relative to Tony and relative to other players, but not tonight."
Indeed, it's not just Romo the Cowboys need to make a determination on. The majority of their secondary – Brandon Carr, Morris Claiborne, Barry Church and J.J. Wilcox – are headed for free agency. Other key pieces like Ron Leary, Terrance Williams, Terrell McClain, Brice Butler and Jack Crawford are heading toward the open market.
None looms larger than Romo, however. But as he reflected on his team's exit from the playoffs, Jones reiterated: that's not a conversation he's ready to have.
"We just won't address any of that until on later," he said. "And I'm not going to quantify it in terms of days or weeks or whatever, but that will be in the future."
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