Tony Romo Is The Real MVP

This entire season, Drew Brees, Kurt Warner, and Brett Favre have been the main NFL players mentioned in the MVP argument. However, suddenly, another candidate has come into the picture.

While those three quarterbacks are all deserving MVP candidates, I believe that Dallas Cowboys' quarterback Tony Romo deserves the MVP award.  If the MVP award is given to the player that is most valuable to his team, it would be hard to argue against Romo deserving it.

Although Romo has been statistically better than these 3 players when he has played, ironically, he has proven he is the most valuable player this season more so when he wasn't playing.

This season the Cowboys have shown that they are an elite team with Romo playing, but without him they’re mediocre at best.  

Here are the statistical comparisons of the four MVP candidates:

Tony Romo: nine games, 21 touchdowns, nine interceptions, 103.2 QB rating, 7-2 record

Drew Brees: 12 games, 24 touchdowns 14 interception, 95.9 QB rating, 6-6 record

Kurt Warner: 12 games, 24 touchdowns, 11 interceptions, 99.4 QB rating, 7-5 record

Brett Favre: 12 games, 20 touchdowns, 14 interceptions, 90.4 QB rating, 8-4 record

Not only does Tony Romo have the highest quarterback rating in the league, he has only three less touchdowns than both NFL league leaders in Brees and Warner in three fewer games and has a better team record when playing than all three.

There is no denying that statistically Romo has been better than all of the other three MVP candidates when he has played.

However, as I mentioned earlier, what makes Romo the most valuable player to his team this year happened when he wasn’t playing due to injury. From weeks 7-9 without him the team went 1-2 and did not score more than 14 points in all three games. Even against the Rams, the 4th worst ranked defense in the league, they couldn’t score more than 14 points. 

In every game Romo has played this season, besides the Cowboys week 11 game against Washington in his first game back from injury, the Cowboys have scored more than 14 points.

In fact, besides week 11, when he has played the Cowboys have scored more than 20 points in every game this season.

In the three games Romo was out, backup quarterback Brad Johnson played awful as he totaled two touchdowns, five interceptions, and a QB rating of 50.5.

Johnson played so poorly that third string quarterback Brooks Bollinger was put in the during the second half of the third game.  Brooks Bollinger also played poorly as he had one touchdown, one interception, and a 60.2 QB rating. Even the running game felt the affect of Romo’s absence as Marion Barber in two of the three games without Romo averaged a pitiful 2.8 YPC.

After Romo was declared doubtful for the next three games, I remember watching NFL experts on ESPN say that because of the Cowboys great offensive system and Brad Johnson's experience, he would be able to run the Cowboys offense efficiently.

Fantasy experts even considered Johnson a good pickup.  Even though I have always been a big Tony Romo fan, I didn’t realize how much his absence would affect the Cowboys. I thought that while obviously Brad Johnson wouldn’t be as good as Romo, he could keep the offense afloat and keep them competitive.

However, after watching Brad Johnson at quarterback, I realized that the Cowboys offensive line and system isn’t as good as many people thought it was. The truth is Romo is what makes that offense shine.

His mobility, his ability to keep plays alive, and his intuition are the key to making this Cowboys offense one of the best. Romo has that so called “it” that can’t be taught and without him all of the great play-makers on the Cowboys become ineffective. 

Although I believe Romo is the MVP, realistically, he probably won’t get the award because he may have entered the race too late. However, regardless if he gets it or not, one thing is for sure; He is the most valuable player to his team out of any player in the NFL.