Jason Garrett has been the subject of a lot of Cowboys discussion over the years. From his time as Troy Aikman’s backup in the early 90s to 2015 and the start of his fifth full year as the Head Coach of the Dallas Cowboys, he’s been a part of Dallas folklore for more than 20 years.
Tony Romo, on the other hand, hasn’t played even a decade in the NFL yet and is the subject of more discussions than Jason Garrett ever has. But there is something about #9 that exposes the hater in so many people, whether fans of other teams, no teams or of the Cowboys, that makes most of the discussions – or at least the loudest of them – about how bad he is. But recently, partially in response to the insanity of releasing Evan Mathis from the Philadelphia Eagles, we posted this on @CowboysNation:
NFC East Career QB Ratings:
Romo 97.6
RG3 90.6
Jason Garrett 83.2
Eli Manning 82.4
Sam Bradford 79.3
Tim Tebow 75.3
Mark Sanchez 74.1— Cowboys Nation (@CowboysNation) June 11, 2015
The point of that tweet was obviously that only one quarterback in the NFC East surpasses even Jason Garrett’s ability as a QB, and that the Eagles’ QBs are at the bottom of the list. But I have a different take on it because another interesting stat about Garrett’s time as a QB for the Cowboys is that he has two Super Bowl rings and a .500 playoff record.
It brings me to this conversation that I see happening over and over again where opponents of Tony Romo disregard him having the NFL’s second highest quarterback rating because of his few playoff wins and zero Super Bowl wins.
It’s an entirely asinine theory to me, but some people – even Cowboys fans – treat him like a redheaded step-child for something he is – at best – responsible for 1/11 of. For those still reading with training wheels on: That’s not counting the defense, special teams, or coaching personnel; just the 11 men on the field during offensive drives.
It’s common to find players measured in the NFL by Super Bowl victories and yet, Super Bowls are team accomplishments, not individual accomplishments. Super Bowl wins offer next to no information about a player’s value. Let me be clear about that … Super Bowl wins account for just a single attribute on an individual basis: Every player that’s been on a Super Bowl winning team managed not to screw it up for them. Beyond that, let’s get real.
Has Tony Romo had blunders? Good lord, yes! But who hasn’t? Has Romo made his fans jump up and scream with excitement while haters shake their head in disbelief? Oh yeah, plenty of times. He’s a gunslinger quarterback in a tough division and yet year after year he goes out there and makes good things happen.
Nine times out of 10 he puts points on the board that would’ve been out of reach without him.
So I’ve got a new answer for the idiots who insist on taking Super Bowl wins out of context as a TEAM accomplishment and over actual statistics measuring individual performance; Jason Garrett has two Super Bowl rings and similar playoff experience, therefore he must be a better quarterback than Romo, RG3, Sam Bradford, Tim Tebow, and Mark Sanchez, and tied with Eli Manning, if Super Bowl wins tell us anything about individual player performance.
It seems stupid resorting to such things just to make a simple point, but it is what it is.
Great article, Bryson! Always a solid to see someone backing up Romo. I think his career in a microcosm was the 2013 Broncos game. Romo puts up 506 yard and 5 TDs which is statistically the finest performance ever by a Cowboys QB…but we lost. If it was an individual game that alone would outweigh the team’s production, but it’s not. The team, the team, the team!