Romo Could Miss 6-10 Weeks

FRISCO, Texas — The Dallas Cowboys thought they had dodged a bullet in Seattle on Thursday when quarterback Tony Romo seemed to be just fine after being knocked out of the 27-17 preseason loss to the Seattle Seahawks three plays into the game.

Romo said he had no pain after the game and his recovery was an example of how strong his back was.

But that was before he woke up Friday with discomfort, forcing the Cowboys to conduct an MRI.

The results were devastating to Romo and the Cowboys.

Romo has been sidelined indefinitely with a broken bone in his back, a compression fracture to the L1 vertebra, per a source. Surgery is not required.

Romo is expected to be sidelined six to 10 weeks, per sources, though coach Jason Garrett refused to put a timetable on his return.

Garrett even declined to rule Romo out of the Sept. 11 season opener against the New York Giants because Romo has played with fractured bones in his back before. Garrett made it clear that Romo’s season is not jeopardy.

“We’re going to monitor his condition day by day and we’ll see how

he feels going forward,” Garrett said. “There’s no time frame when he’s going to return. We are confident he is going be coming back and playing football for us this year.”

Romo’s most likely return is the Oct. 30 matchup against the Philadelphia Eagles, putting him out for the first six games of the season.

Rookie fourth-round draft pick Dak Prescott will take over until Romo returns.

“He’s driven for this not to be like last year,” Cowboys vice president Stephen Jones said of Romo. “He’s certainly not deterred and he really feels like it’s going to be different, he’s going to be able to get through this and he also feels confident that our team will be able to win games while he’s not here. He’s driven to help Dak win football games for us so when he gets back that he will have a great chance to have a great season, get in the tournament and contend for a championship, nothing’s changed.”

Romo, 36, has not played a full season since 2012. He underwent two back surgeries in 2013. He missed two games in 2014 with fractured bones in his back. He missed 12 games in 2015 after twice fracturing his collarbone.

Garrett said Romo’s current situation is not related to his past injuries, and his ability to play with two fractured transverse processes in 2014 gives them hope he can return sooner than later.

“Again, it’s not related to the other back issues that he’s had (and is) very specific to the hit he took the other night at the game,” Garrett said. “He has played with fractures in his back before. That more than anything else is not giving us a time frame. We have heard a wide range of possibilities. We have to monitor it day by day and see how he responds. It’s a matter of the bone healing and Tony being able to function with this injury. He has done that before. We are all optimistic he will be back soon and be ready soon and play at high level for us.”

Prescott has completed 39 of 50 passes for 454 yards and five touchdowns with no interceptions in the preseason. He has also rushed for two touchdowns. His quarterback rating of 137.8 in three games is the highest in the NFL.

However, the Cowboys were 1-11 without Romo last year and are 7-20 without him since 2006.

“Of course our success without Tony hasn’t been good up to this point, but we fully expect to change that this year,” Jones said. “We fully understand why everybody is going to question that, but we feel good about Dak (Prescott). We think our team feels good about Dak. The chemistry is there with the players and that’s what we’re going to focus on. But we totally understand there’s going to be question marks and people are going to question whether we can get it done.”

Jameill Showers is currently Dallas’ third quarterback, but the Cowboys will look to add a veteran to back up Prescott until Romo returns.

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