Week 4 QB projections   •  DAL Stats

QB Tony Romo, Dallas Cowboys

HT: 6-2, WT: 219, Born: 4-21-1980, College: Eastern Illinois, Drafted: ---

2011 Projections

Average draft position

Current as of September 6th. [Full ADP list]

Overall: D Bowe (33), A Bradshaw (34), Tony Romo (35), M Williams (36), D Williams (37)
Position: D Brees (19-QB4), P Rivers (24-QB5), Tony Romo (35 - QB6), M Schaub (51-QB7), M Ryan (54-QB8)
Click here for a comparison of these players.

PPR Average draft position

Current as of September 6th. [Full PPR ADP list]

Overall: S Greene (42), J Witten (43), Tony Romo (44), J Finley (45), B Lloyd (46)
Position: D Brees (27-QB4), P Rivers (29-QB5), Tony Romo (44 - QB6), M Schaub (58-QB7), M Ryan (61-QB8)
Click here for a comparison of these players.

 Click here to go to the Tony Romo spotlight, our staff's most detailed analysis.

Best Case

Tony Romo is an elite quarterback, and yet few seem to give him the credit he's due. Yet, the 31-year old, 8-year veteran has everything an offensive coordinator could ask for. He's accurate (64.1% career completion rate), strong, throws downfield, and puts points on the board. Romo is the active leader in TD rate (5.7%) and yards per attempt (8.0), and sits 3rd in pass rating (behind Aaron Rodgers and Philip Rivers). With a new stud right tackle in Tyron Smith, stability at the top of the coaching ranks with Jason Garrett, and a returning cast of quality playmakers, Romo has all the tools to dominate.

Worst Case

Last season was a nightmare for Romo, as he got off to a 1-5 start before breaking his collarbone and missing the remainder of the season. Although he's made a full recovery, his injury is a reminder of the fragility of the position and the need for Dallas offensive line to play more consistently. Similarly, the Cowboys running game has to get back on track after a disappointing 15th place finish in 2011. Without a strong running game, opposing defenses will pin their ears back and come after the three-time Pro Bowler.

Outlook

Tony Romo's win/loss record may have been abysmal last year before his injury, but his fantasy performance was not. He was the 6th ranked fantasy passer before he got hurt, which is right in line with his prior career trajectory (2nd, 9th, 6th in 2007-2009). The Cowboys came together as a team once Jason Garrett took the helm, and Romo stands to benefit from the continuity of returning stars like Jason Witten and Mile Austin, not to mention the natural maturation we'll see from 2nd year Dez Bryant. There are only a handful of quarterbacks that have a legitimate shot at finishing as the top fantasy QB each year, and Romo is one of them.

Relevant Articles

Why he is undervalued

Sigmund Bloom - Romo has produced at or near the clip of the elite QBs like Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Philip Rivers, and Tom Brady since Miles Austin breakout in 2009, yet you can get him a round or more later than those illustrious names. Romo has the most talented 1-2 punch in the league at wide receiver in Austin and Dez Bryant and one of the best receiving TEs in Jason Witten. He's your plan A at QB, hope to land in him in late fourth or fifth round.

Anthony Borbely - When you compare the numbers of the top fantasy QBs, Romo's are as good as any of them. He has averaged 270 passing yards and almost two TDs per game. Folks, that works out to over 4300 yards and 32 TDs per season. Those numbers are comparable to QBs like Brady, Brees, Manning, and Rivers. The difference is Romo's ADP of 48 is much lower than that of the QBs I just listed. Why draft a QB in the second or third round when you can draft a similar QB in round four? Use your first three picks on RBs and WRs and get your stud QB in round four. That gives you a huge advantage over the rest of the owners in your league.

Jene Bramel - I feel the same way about Romo this year as last. His talent and surrounding cast put him on the edge of elite fantasy QB status, but he's often available after half the league has already committed to their QB1. It's hard to argue that Romo should be ranked higher than QB7, but that doesn't mean he's not a clear value play. A healthy Romo isn't a bad bet to out-produce Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning or Philip Rivers. If you don't want to fuss over matchups with a QBBC approach but don't want to feel obligated to take a QB in the first four rounds of your draft, Romo is your man.

Mike Brown - Aside from his fully healed fractured shoulder blade, I fail to see what's so different between the situation Romo walks into in 2011 versus 2010, when he was everybody's darling pick to finish as QB1 because of all the weapons around him. He's lost Marion Barber and Roy Williams, hardly players who were counted on as focal points of the passing game. With an improved Dez Bryant and an offensive line that can't possibly be worse, Romo is in position to put up the stats in 2011 that he was supposed to put up in 2010.

David Dodds - This team had all the pieces in place at the end of last year, but unfortunately Romo was sidelined due to injury. He is back and should be able to move the ball efficiently with arguably the best starting WRs in the league in Austin Miles and Dez Bryant. TE Jason Witten isn't a slouch either and will likely top all TEs in catches in 2011. The team has moved on from inconsistent players Roy Williams and Marion Barber, but that could add even more passing yards as starting RB Felix Jones should be exceptional in screens/dumps out of the backfield.

Jeff Haseley - As it stands right now in drafts, Tony Romo is the forgotten elite QB. He is currently the 7th QB taken in drafts on average. It's hard to rank him ahead of Rodgers, Brady, Brees, Vick, Manning and Rivers, however he has just as much ability to crack the Top 3 as the above players do. Between Miles Austin, Dez Bryant and Jason Witten, Romo has plenty of weapons at his disposal. He's a great value pick at his current ADP.

Ryan Hester - Before being injured last season against the Giants, Tony Romo was averaging 313 yards and two touchdowns per game last year. He was utilizing weapons all over the field -- including a resurrection of Roy Williams from useless to pleasant surprise. This year, Romo has Miles Austin and Jason Witten back with a blossoming Dez Bryant replacing Williams. From 2007 through 2009 (16 games, 13, 16), Romo's lowest yards per game total in a season was 263 yards. He threw 88 TDs (36, 26, 26). As a point of reference, Peyton Manning averaged 261 yards per game over that time and threw 91 TDs. This is a team with a former quarterback as its head coach and offensive guru and a team without a clear-cut running game leader. If he stays healthy, drafting Romo this year is like drafting 2007-09 Peyton Manning but with arguably better weapons.

Jeff Pasquino - Dallas will struggle to put the ball in the end zone on the ground with just Felix Jones at tailback, so expect Romo to get Dez Bryant, Jason Witten and Miles Austin heavily involved each and every week. Romo has some wheels too, so expect a few rushing TDs for Romo himself this year. Romo has Top 5 upside and you will not have to select him nearly as high as his potential.

Jason Wood - Romo isn't undervalued in terms of his QB positioning -- I have him ranked as the 7th best fantasy QB, as well. But he's going 48th overall, almost two rounds after Philip Rivers comes off the board -- and that's the rub. Romo is coming off an injury, but a broken collarbone isn't something that you have to worry about relapsing. He's 100% healthy and one of the league's most productive passers. His career TD rate is better than most of the guys going ahead of him, as is his passer rating and yards-per-completion. With Dez Bryant, Miles Austin and Jason Witten, Romo should be coming off the board in the 3rd round alongside Rivers, not in the 4th or 5th.

Latest News

Cowboys | Tony Romo takes his golfing seriously (Tue Feb 7, 09:13 PM) - Dallas Cowboys QB Tony Romo is partnering with Tiger Woods this week at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in California. Romo has been seeking tips from Tiger, and he even sent a video of his swing to the PGA star. 'As we all know, he's a hell of an athlete,' Woods said. 'He can play just about any sport he wants. He's one of those gifted athletes. Whatever he picks up he can do.'

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2011 Schedule

2011 Game Summaries

Week 1 - Romo started off the game with a nice drive resulting in a touchdown to Dez Bryant. On the play, Romo threw it high and allowed Bryant to go up and make a play. The Dallas quarterback got hit early and often by the Jets and it took a while for the offensive line to settle down. When it did, Romo was able to move the ball well against the Jets' defense. Once again, however, Romo was his own worst enemy, fumbling twice (losing one of them) and throwing a terrible interception as well. On the pick, Romo rolled out to his right, looking for Dez Bryant. Somehow he completely missed Jets CB Darrelle Revis, who easily intercepted the ball and ran it back for 20 yards. Revis was able to hang back on Bryant because of safety help over the top, but there is no excuse for Romo throwing that pass. Revis was clearly in perfect position to intercept the ball and it's hard to believe Romo thought he could finesse it over the CB's head. The resulting set of downs allowed the Jets to kick a game winning field goal. The offense also had many bad delay of game penalties during the whole game. While that's on all of the offense, it's Tony Romo's job to avoid those penalties and more than one really killed a drive. Romo can put up great stats, but he's also very adept at giving up games as well.

Week 2 - After a disastrous ending against the Jets in the season opener, Romo played exceptionally well against the 49ers. Adding to the performance was the fact that Romo cracked a rib in the second quarter. While he missed two series in the third quarter as the injury was being tended to, he quickly returned to the game and engineered three scoring drives in the fourth quarter and overtime to help the Cowboys win. Romo's rib injury did not appear to affect his throwing motion during the game as he actually looked more accurate with his passes in the second half. Romo and the Cowboys used a lot of play-action and a lot of shotgun snaps in an effort to loosen the short middle of the field. The strategy was effective as Miles Austin and Jason Witten were able to catch the ball on the run between 5 and 12 yards downfield for most of the afternoon. Romo's two best throws came with the game in the balance. On a 25 yard touchdown throw to Miles Austin, Romo deftly threaded the ball between two defenders under heavy pressure in the pocket. And on the game's final play, Romo read the defense perfectly as the 49ers bit on play-action. Jesse Holley was left wide open streaking down the hashmarks. Romo hit him in perfect stride, leading to a 77 yard gain and the game-winning field goal.

Week 3 - Romo played through pain, played with receivers that didn't seem to know what was going on, played through bad snaps and tough penalties, and still managed to gut out a tough win. At the beginning of the game, Romo's throws seemed to lack a little zip, as he was getting passes batted down, and couldn't seem to get into a rhythm. But he settled in with the short passing game with Witten and Felix Jones, and eventually got things going. The loss of Miles Austin really hurts this offense. Perhaps as Dez Bryant's health improves, he will become more explosive and things will get better. But until then, Romo is just trying to piece things together, His receivers were just unable to get anything going, as Robinson and Ogletree both really struggled. On one play near the goalline, you could visually see Romo asking Ogletree what he was doing! On the final drive, Romo overcame a bad snap from center that occurred as he was trying to call an audible. Set back ten yards, he still was able to fire a dart to Dez Bryant for a 30 yard gain, which was without question the play of the game for Romo and the Cowboys. Then he hit Laurent Robinson on a comeback on the right side, that Robinson spun out of and turned upfield for 25 yards, putting the Cowboys down near the goalline. Despite his gutty performance though, Romo couldn't get it done in the redzone, which made this game much closer than it probably should have been.

Week 4 - It was the tale of two halves for Tony Romo and the Dallas Cowboys. Romo started off the game strong, leading the Cowboys down the field on their opening drive for a TD. The pass was a beautiful floater into the end zone where Dez Bryant was able to beat his defender for the score. On the next series, Romo led Dallas down to the one yard line, but the offensive line couldn't get the push that they needed and Felix Jones was stuffed on 4th and goal from the one. In the second quarter, Romo again led the Cowboys down the field with a beautiful 44 yard bomb over the middle to Laurent Robinson to set up Dez Bryant's second TD reception -- a quick stick route where Bryant was working one on one again and Romo put the ball where only he could go and make a play. When he found Witten in the back of the end zone to start the third quarter, putting the Cowboys up 27-3 at the time, it looked like Dallas was going to blow out the 3-0 Lions in a big statement game. Unfortunately the wheels came off at that point. On his next possession, Romo missed Bobby Carpenter coming over from the LB spot and threw the ball right too him for a pick six. On the next series, On the next series, after a couple key first downs, Romo again coughed up a pick six on a quick slant route to Robinson where the CB made a great play and shifted the momentum to Detroit's favor for good. His final mistake came late in the 4th quarter, where Romo was under pressure and while falling back and throwing from his back foot, he chucked a weak pass down the middle of the field and it was easily picked off for his third INT of the day. Detroit promptly drove down the field and scored the go-ahead TD with less than two minutes to play. It was the worst collapse in Dallas history, and it fell squarely on Romo's shoulders.