As the QB turns … One of the enduring story lines throughout this year’s darft process has been the question whether Dallas would be taking a young QB to groom to ultimately replace the soon-to-be 36-year-old incumbent starter Tony Romo. And that story was all over the place today. On the one hand Cowboys’ owner/GM Jerry Jones was widely quoted saying that he expects Romo to do “the heavy lifting for us at quarterback for the next 4-5 years.” At the same time, though, there are reports that Romo will likely have surgery next week to have a plate inserted in his shoulder to help protect his collarbone which was broken twice this past season. While the surgery is being described as preventive it is just another reminder that the Cowboys may need a replacement sooner rather than later. Of late, the thinking around the league is that the Cowboys were more likely to use a second-day pick on the position rather than the 4th overall selection this coming April 28th, but that could change especially given that both Jared Goff of California and North Dakota State’s Carson Wentz, the two top-rated passers in this year’s draft both more than held serve in today’s on-field workout at the scouting combine in Indianapolis. In fact, by our unofficial poll, Goff may have come out slightly ahead of Wentz after today’s testing, but there are scouts out there who still think the latter has more upside. Meanwhile, there have been strange signals coming out of San Francisco this week regarding the fate of QB Colin Kaepernick. Earlier in the week, for example, 49ers’ GM Trent Baalke went on the record saying that the 49ers were ‘absolutely’ still be on the roster as of April 1st when his $12-million contract becomes guaranteed. Within 24 hours, though, Kaepernick’s agent let it be known that he will be asking the team for permission to work out a trade. And the word around the league is that when a high-profile QB wants a trade they usually get it elsewise they become a distraction no team wants. In reaffirming that Kaepernick wasn’t going anywhere Baalke left the impression that the 49ers would be happy enough to let he and Blaine Gabbert duke it out for the team’s starting job this fall while using the 7th pick overall on another position. However, that only really works if Kaepernick is still on the team. All this has to be a little music for Tennessee which has the top pick overall and have let it be known they’d be happy to move down; in order to do that though the Titans will need another team with a top pick to move up ostensibly to get a QB, but right now Cleveland, with the 2nd pick, appears to be the only other team seriously looking at taking a QB in this year’s opening round. Stay tuned.
