NFL Top 10 Series: Quarterbacks - #9

Welcome one and all to the much talked about and much anticipated (maybe not so much) debut of the NFL Top 10 Series. We’ve gone through the motions since the middle of the month of April with honorable mentions posts, which if you’re reading this post right now you have probably read through most if not all of them. #10 has already been posted and to some it might have been somewhat controversial. If you think that was controversial, I’m not sure how you’re going to think about this one. I’m not just doing this out of controversy either. These are my real thoughts, believe it or not. Anyways, brace yourselves, I can only warn you so many times.

Quarterback #9 – Tony Romo, Dallas Cowboys

Tony Romo has gotten so much hate over the years, that he might in fact be criminally underrated. 

Yes, this is the same guy who infamously, and egregiously fumbled the snap against the Seattle Seahawks in a 2006 Wild Card Playoff Game. Yes, this is the same guy who infamously threw aninterception to R.W. McQuarters in the 2007 Divisional Playoff Round against the New York Giants who would go on to win Super Bowl XLII. This is the very same guy who has gotten criticism left and right for “blowing big games.” So why does he find himself on this list? It’s very simple actually. Sure he has been given chances to succeed and more often than not, he has come up short, but the talent he possesses, and the overall consistency he has shown since 2006 has been great enough to put him on this list, and at the #9 position in this series. Now before you go crazy, ask yourself this:

“Would I want a quarterback who in each season that he has played in has thrown for over 3,500 yards, more than 25 touchdowns and one that has thrown more than 15 interceptions just once in his career?”

If the answer is yes, then Tony Romo is the quarterback for you. Yeah, believe it or not, Romo has had all of those accomplishments and last year he may very well have had the best year of his entire career. His completion percentage was off the charts (66.3%), he threw for 4,184 yards, and found the endzone 31 times and only was picked off 10 times. In fact hypothetically, if we rule out the absolutely abysmal performance that Tony Romo had against the Detroit Lions, where Romo was picked off three times, he would only have seven interceptions on the season for a great TD:INT ratio. Obviously though, we can’t, but the point still remains that Romo’s a very, very good and consistent quarterback in the NFL.

He was very good under pressure as well. According to Pro Football Focus, Romo had the ninth best TD to INT ratio when feeling the heat in 2011. Romo threw seven touchdowns while being pressured to just four interceptions. That mark was better than Jay Cutler, Matthew Stafford, Eli Manning, Michael Vick, Cam Newton, Matt Ryan, and Philip Rivers. Great company if you ask me. Get this too: Romo was second best under pressure when it comes to completion percentage. You would think that a guy who is “so prone to throwing interceptions in key spots” would be lower than second on this list, but he didn’t. He completed 76 passes of 134 attempts for a mark of 56.7%, only beaten by Drew Brees. Once again Romo finds himself in great company. He was only sacked 20% of the time while feeling the pressure on 174 dropbacks. All-around, very good marks.

The jokes are always there with Romo though. People harp on the bad moments (Seattle, New York, Philadelphia in 2008 where the Cowboys lost 41-6, etc.) but he has shined with the lights on him a couple of times. In 2009 he arguably shined his brightest when he walked into New Orleans and led the charge in the trouncing of the previously undefeated Saints. He went on to lead the charge in the thrashing of the rival Philadelphia Eagles two consecutive weeks, once in the playoffs in fact, where he left with a 104.9 QB Rating, completing 65.7% of his passes on 35 attempts and threw for two touchdowns and had zero interceptions. 

Pretty good performance, eh?

Now wait a second, which was three years ago. Why are we judging a quarterback based on something he did three years ago?

Simply this: that was Romo’s last chance in the playoffs so far. He was injured for much of 2010 and in 2011 the Cowboys were incredibly inconsistent. Don’t blame #9 for that though. The defense was absolutely atrocious for Dallas in almost all respects. In fact for a while Dallas’ defense has been very less than stellar and people seem to forget that and instead (as it always seems to be in the NFL) shove the blame the quarterback’s way. Matt Ryan would tell you the same in fact if he could.

To me it would have been completely foolish for me to ignorantly look at Romo’s mistakes and have that be the reason he was not on this list. This guy is dished too much criticism and has been a very, very good quarterback. And hey, that might be all he ever is, but so what? Why is it that there is such ignorance for the middle ground? It seems like in the NFL you’re either elite, or you stink. There are a lot of quarterbacks in this league (probably ranked 7-15) that are very good players that their teams are extremely satisfied with and the teams who have the unlucky honor of possessing 16-32 would do just about anything to get. I think Romo’s underrated personally by most that kick him to the curb and think of moments that have happened almost six years ago now.

Sure, he has his bad moments, and those bad moments are why he doesn’t find himself higher than ninth and you cannot forget those, and trust me, I don’t forget those and I do take those into account. However, Romo in my opinion is the ninth best quarterback in the league and there is not much that can get me to say otherwise. His talent and consistency is top notch. He makes plays out of the pocket few can make, and he is the best quarterback since Aikman that Dallas has had, and will have for the next couple of seasons.