Tony Romo signed a massive contract extension worth $108 million with the Dallas Cowboys last week. Considering he has only one playoff win in seven seasons as a starting quarterback, many people (see: McNabb, Donovan) feel that Jerry Jones gave Romo way more money than he is worth.
None of that matters when the Cowboys kick off their 2013 season, and linebacker DeMarcus Ware reminded us of that during an interview with Sirius XM’s NFL Radio on Thursday.
“I feel like everybody is deserving to whatever is given to him, but at the end of the day, to me it’s put up or shut up,” Ware said when asked about Romo’s contract, via The Dallas Morning News. “I’m just being straight-up honest with you. Get out there and be productive, and that’s with any player. Whatever they get, they’re deserving of it. You just got to get out there and play and I know he can be and will be the quarterback that is going to be the quarterback that is going to take us to the next level.”
Statistically, Romo is one of the better quarterbacks in the NFL. He makes mistakes at critical times, but his QB rating has never been lower than 90.5 in a single season. Quarterbacks are at such a premium that you have to spend $55 million in guaranteed money to keep one of them — even if that person has been a failure in the clutch.
Ware has defended Romo as a leader in the past, but you could argue that the Cowboys quarterback is going to be under more pressure than ever going forward. If he continues to make poor decisions like this with the game on the line, Romo’s contract will start to look pretty horrible to his teammates and the fans.
