Last week, Cowboys coach Jason Garrett appeared to be leaning toward holding quarterback Tony Romo out of Sunday’s Hall of Fame Game against the Dolphins.
While Garrett left the door open to a cameo appearance for a series to start things off, he intimated that the preseason opener would be quarterbacked by Nick Stephens and Alex Tanney as they battle for the third spot on the depth chart. Romo knows that such a limited appearance doesn’t sound like much, but he’s still hoping that Garrett decides to call his number in Canton even though he’s been limited in preseason reps because of the back surgery to remove a cyst that he had this offseason.
“I don’t know that first series, if I did play, it would be a series, whether you went eight plays or three plays, I’m not sure how much that is going to affect that,” Romo said, via the team’s website. “Saying that, I still want to play every time I suit up. Every time I step out there your juices are flowing and you want to compete. From that perspective, yeah. But whatever the coaches want.”
It’s hard to imagine that Romo’s desire to play will sway Garrett when the Cowboys still have four more preseason games to play. That allows the team to give Romo more time to make sure all is well after surgery without altering the normal preseason schedule for their starting quarterback.