Tony Romo won't be placed on injured reserve to start the season.
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones confirmed Romo likely would stay on the 53-man roster to start the season. Dallas could have placed the quarterback on IR with the plan to utilize the designated to return tag. Doing so, however, would have ruled Romo out until midseason.
"I don't want to rule out anything," Jones said on 105.3 The Fan, via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "I don't know that anybody is qualified to do that. Medicine basically gives you estimates and guidelines, and I'm not trying to be vague here, but there's no need to rule out anything. We don't have a situation on the 53, this isn't an active roster day-game situation. He won't be active, and we don't have anybody valuable enough to take up that last spot to give us the opportunity to see how he does. There's just not enough value there realistically to bring someone else in. That's the deciding factor.
"You don't have to spend a lot of time going over and kind of circumcising the mosquito. You don't have to do that over there on him because you look back over on the other side that caused you to make the decision, and there's nobody good enough to take that spot to give you a chance for that if he can come back."
I don't know how you circumcise a mosquito, but that sounds like a thankless job. Can someone please update the odd aphorisms section of Jerry Jones' Wikipedia page, please? You can stick "circumcising the mosquito" right after "as low as a crippled cricket's ass" and "I want me some glory hole," thanks.
Outside of the mosquito purification, Jones' main point is salient: The 53rd player on the roster won't be active on game days (only 46 players dress, by rule). On the outside chance that Romo is ready early, the Cowboys want the chance to bring back their quarterback as soon as possible.