Tony Romo Must Prove to Cowboys He's Worth Massive Contract

Tony Romo became one of the highest-paid quarterbacks in the league this offseason, but he needs to prove to the Dallas Cowboys that he is actually worth his lofty contract.

This offseason, Romo received a six-year contract extension worth $108 million with $55 million guaranteed.  Plenty of people criticized Jerry Jones and the Cowboys front office for such a lucrative deal, but Jones has shown faith in his quarterback time and time again.

A tweet by NFL on ESPN revealed that Tony Romo recently underwent surgery to remove a cyst on his back, and will miss OTAs.

Later, a report by Michael David Smith on ProFootballTalk.com revealed Jerry’s thoughts behind Romo and his contract, saying:

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“When you give somebody $100 million, you’d like to get every ounce of anything they can bring to the table to win a football game,” Jones said.

Jones said he believes Romo is a great offensive mind who can add a lot to game planning sessions.

“He’s outstanding on offensive concepts and he’s got a vantage point that very few people have,” Jones said of Romo. “So anything that he can bring from the concept to the field has got to make us a better football team. I think it will.”

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For Romo, it’s understandable that he needs time to recover from surgery and that he isn’t going to be doing drills during OTAs.  However, this doesn’t excuse him from being absent altogether and not bonding with new players.

Earlier in the offseason, Jones was expecting “Peyton Manning-type” preparation out of his quarterback after Romo signed a big contract.

Right now, Romo better do whatever it takes to help his teammates and get the offense back on track.

OTAs aren’t an incredibly important part of learning the playbook, but they are a time to build team chemistry.  The Cowboys’ chemistry has been called into question plenty of times over the past few seasons, especially due to the fact that the team has failed to reach the playoffs in the past three seasons.

The quarterback is expected to be the leader of the team, even if he can’t actively participate in drills.  For Romo, he needs to talk with rookies and new players to make them feel as comfortable as possible and prove he is the true leader.

Not only are teammates expecting to see Romo working hard, but so are fans. 

Fans of the Cowboys have had a rough enough past few seasons, and plenty weren’t exactly thrilled with the idea of Romo getting such a lucrative extension.  Now, they see their quarterback isn’t actively participating in OTAs, and that Dallas is paying him all of this money to sit out.

With the amount of money Romo is getting over the next few seasons, the very least he should be doing is helping his teammates in any way he can while he's sidelined.

There are plenty of people that would work very hard for that kind of money, and right now Romo needs to show his teammates and the fans that he is willing to do whatever it takes to win.