Dallas Cowboys Rumors: Romo's Short Leash Sure Sign of More Drama

Coming off a disappointing 2011 season that ended with a crushing defeat at the hands of the rival New York Giants, the Dallas Cowboys are under a tremendous amount of pressure to succeed this season.

If the team doesn't meet the always-lofty expectations of mercurial owner Jerry Jones, then some big changes may be coming in Big D.

Tim Cowlishaw of the Dallas Morning News recently opined that while all the Cowboys' recent troubles can't be laid at the feet of 10th-year signal-caller Tony Romo, he's certainly not without blame. Anything less than a stellar season under center for Romo may start the clock ticking on his departure from Dallas.

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I don't absolve him of all blame, but I think Romo is good enough to get teams to the playoffs on a regular basis if that team has decent talent. Dallas' overall talent has been overrated for years. The problem now is that the Giants and Eagles are better. The Redskins aren't, but in two or three years if RG3 develops, they could be. Romo turns 32 this month. I suspect if he has less than a Pro Bowl season in 2012, the Cowboys will start thinking about more serious competition than Kyle Orton.

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Romo has been something of a polarizing player in Dallas for several seasons. Supporters point to his not inconsiderable talents, three 4,000-yard passing seasons and a career passer rating of over 90. Detractors point to his 1-3 career record in the playoffs and penchant for making boneheaded mistakes with the football.

For what it's worth, one of Romo's top weapons in the Dallas passing game is excited about the Cowboys prospects for 2012, as tight end Jason Witten recently told the team's website that he feels the Cowboys are set to knock the New York Giants off their perch atop the NFC East.

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"You see that schedule knowing we're going to open up (in New York) against the defending champs ... what else do you need to motivate yourself?" Witten rhetorically asked. "It's time to do that. I think guys understand that. They've been around here and know to forget everything else and let's go be our best and play great football. There're going to be times when you lose, but you've got to be able to address it and get better. Hopefully we can hang our hats on that. We've got the right type of guys that can lead us to have the same kind of success that we've seen the Giants have."

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Also, Jerry Jones himself said recently in an interview with CBS Sports that he might have been partially responsible for some of the Cowboys' struggles in 2011, blaming poor personnel decisions for a makeshift offensive line that may have rattled Romo.

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“There was no question that Romo had that on his mind when we started the season,” Jones said. “And I know that it impacted our year from having that on his mind, not only physically but mentally about the base that we had up front.”

“I personally got carried away with, ‘Hey, we’re going to be able to go. These guys are playing well enough as a group. Costa – throw him in there. They’re playing well enough as a group that we’ll be able to not be too compromised and they’ll evolve and get better and better.’ That was a mistake.”

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However, to this point, the Cowboys have done very little to significantly upgrade that makeshift line. If the sound of approaching footsteps causes Romo to make mistakes again this season, the next sound he hears may be fans clamoring for backup Kyle Orton.

This isn't to say that Kyle Orton gives the Dallas Cowboys a better chance to win—so long as Romo can walk, that's almost certainly not the case. However, Cowboys fans don't take losing well, no matter what the reason.

So, unless Romo and the Cowboys come out of the gate hot (especially against the hated Giants on opening night), then a team that always has its share of drama may well be staring at the additional headache of a quarterback controversy.

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