Cris Carter says the Cowboys should trade Tony Romo for J.J. Watt
The Hall of Famer has some trade advice for Jerry Jones
By
John Breech
•
2 min read
Now that the offseason has officially started for the Dallas Cowboys, one of the first things the team is going to have to figure out is what to do with Tony Romo.
Should they trade him? Should they cut him? Should they keep him? Should they ask him to take a pay cut?
Although Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is willing to admit that pretty much every option is on the table at this point, he's not quite ready to reveal what the Cowboys might do with their former star quarterback.
"There's several cards to be played," Jones told 105.3 the Fan, a CBS Sports Radio station, this week, via the New York Times. "Don't think for one minute if you see something written or something said about what and where Romo is going to be relative to our team that there's any credibility to it. There's only one that can make that decision, and there's been no decision made."
The person who will be making that decision is Jones, and if he's looking for some advice, Cris Carter has some for him. The Hall of Fame wide receiver thinks the Cowboys should give the Texans a call and propose a blockbuster trade.
"I'd try to pull off a deal for J.J. Watt," Carter said during an appearance on "Undisputed" this week. "That's what I would try to do. That would be the deal that I'd be going for with Jerry. I'd try to get J.J. Watt."
Before you laugh this trade off, let's hear Carter out. The former NFL receiver says that the Texans have a strong defense without Watt thanks to the emergence of Jadeveon Clowney.
"Clowney's established himself, J.J. Watt's got a bad back," Carter said. "How long is he going to be able to play at that level?"
Watt is absolutely the one of the best defensive players in the league when he's healthy, but if this season in Houston proved one thing, it's that having a capable quarterback might actually be more important to the Texans than having Watt.
Even though Watt went down following Week 3, the Texans were still able to make the playoffs and finish the season with the NFL's top ranked defense. That doesn't mean Watt's not one of the best defensive players in the league, it just means you could argue that the quarterback position is hurting the Texans more than not having Watt.
If you had told the Texans they could have either Romo or Watt for their divisional round playoff game against the Patriots, that choice probably wouldn't have been easy. Brock Osweiler threw three interceptions in that game, and you have to think a veteran like Romo would've played better, and possibly led them to the win.
The biggest obstacle in this deal is that it makes no sense for the Texans to trade away one of the NFL's best players in Watt, who's only 27, for an injury-riddle quarterback who might only have one or two seasons left at age 36.
To solve that problem, Carter suggested that the Cowboys toss in a little something extra to send to Houston in the proposed deal for Watt.
"Also, I would take Dallas' draft pick and Tony Romo, and trade them to Houston, for J.J. Watt, and bring him to JerryWorld," Carter said.
Romo and a draft pick for Watt? If it's a first-rounder, the Texans might actually listen if the Cowboys called.
They say everything's bigger in Texas, and this trade would definitely qualify if the Cowboys and Texans were to pull it off.
