IRVING, Texas – If there was anything wrong with Tony Romo's throws against Tennessee on Sunday, Cowboys owner/general manager Jerry Jones said Tuesday it's more of the mechanical variety.
Speaking on his weekly radio show on 105.3 The Fan, Jones was asked for his opinion on Romo's performance against the Titans. It's been a popular talking point since the Cowboys' 26-10 win that their quarterback looked rusty and lacked velocity on some passes. Romo is returning from a December back surgery, and Jones said he thinks his footwork is still developing.
"Probably this idea of turning on the run, getting the rust off, has to do with the footwork," he said. "Anybody that's played golf, anybody that's been around guys in their hitting slumps, if you want to refer to baseball, know that footwork all works together there. I think that's what you're seeing."
On Sunday, Jones referenced two of Romo's throws during the game – an 18-yard completion to Dez Bryant on 3rd-and-15 and a 10-yard completion on 3rd-and-7 – as evidence of Romo's arm strength. He referenced those again on Tuesday.
"When he's in good shape with his feet and can step into it, we saw it, and we know he can do it, because it was late in the game and he made the plays with those crisp throws. He can do that," he said.
The necessity for good mechanics hasn't always been there, according to Jones, as Romo has typically had the capacity to rely on arm strength. With a lessened practice regimen this year, Jones said that will likely take some time to develop. [embedded_ad]
"Romo, in the past, has been able to maybe come out of there and do some things without the footwork sometimes – we've gotten used to that in years past," he said. "That's probably a process, to use Jason's term. That's probably getting better as the practices and the games go along."
That goes along with what Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said Monday when asked for his take.
"You have to have the ability to move in the pocket, throw from different positions with your feet, different arm angles. One of Tony's real strengths throughout his career has been the ability to do that," Garrett said. "The more he plays coming back off this injury, I anticipate that continuing to get better and better. We saw some good examples of that (Sunday) and maybe some examples where he wasn't quite himself. He'll continue to get better."
