Top 5 Offseason Questions For The Dallas Cowboys: #4 Romo's Return

In this series, we look at the top 5 questions that are up in the air about the Cowboys offseason. Previously, at #5, we wondered how the Cowboys would navigate free agency and the lack of clarity due to the collective bargaining mess. Today, we open discussion on Tony Romo.

4 - Will Tony Romo's time out due to injury bring him greater success when he returns to the field?

In the vein of ultimate optimism, I saw a chance for improvement when Tony Romo went down with injury. I believed  there was opportunity for veteran's time on the bench to serve him well.

When Romo went down in 2008 for a stretch, we all watched in befuddlement as Brad Johnson pretended to still be a quarterback. There wasn't anything that Romo could have learned from that, on any level.

But with Kitna at the helm?

Tony Romo saw an extremely well-played representation of how to function without the deep ball. Also, due to the fact that Kitna is a consummate professional, he ran the team the way Romo did. Romo got to see pieces of himself from afar. I remember the first interview I heard from Kitna when he said something along the lines of 'I'm a backup, I know my place, I'll do everything the way Tony did it so there is no confusion.'

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of Romo. Although I think he resides outside of the top 5 active quarterbacks (this is more than talent, team results are necessary), there really isn't anyone that I'd rather have as my leader on the field.

However, there has always been talk about how Romo interacts with his teammates. Not everyone in a locker room gets along, but when a quarterback is in tune with the rest of his teammates, it makes a difference.

I'm not privy to these things, so I make no judgments as to whether or not this is true. What I will say is that any chance you get to observe your job being performed by someone else, and you are guaranteed of getting the job back - you better learn a lil' summin' summin'.

Let's see what new managerial tricks Tony Romo has up his sleeve for 2011.