Tony Romo trade update – Broncos move ahead of Texans in sweepstakes

The Cowboys are playing a game of chicken with the Denver Broncos and Houston Texans, and as of today it looks as though like Texans will be the first to veer off the road – making the Broncos the current leader in the clubhouse to land Tony Romo’s services.

The Texans will not relinquish much of anything in a trade for Romo, while the Broncos appear as though they would – at least – give up a draft pick. It’s possible that the Texans would budge at the 11^th hour if Dallas tells them that Denver is willing to do business, but Houston clearly wants to keep the asking price down (especially given how badly they whiffed a year ago at QB).

“My understanding of the Texans’ stance is that they are not going to trade for Tony Romo,” NFL Networks’ Ian Rapoport told MaD Radio. “I have some pretty good sources that are pretty adamant about that. Maybe that changes as we get closer to the draft, but I don’t believe it will. It certainly sounds like a situation where the Texans are just going to wait and wait and if Tony Romo gets released they will definitely be interested. If he doesn’t get released then I don’t think they’ll be interested.”

In Denver, the talk is that the Broncos’ level of interest in trading for Romo will hinge on Paxton Lynch’s development.

“A big factor in all of this is Lynch,” Denver 9News’ Mike Klis. “The longer Romo remains a Cowboy, the longer the Broncos have to evaluate Lynch during offseason practices. If Lynch shows dramatic improvement early in Year 2, the Broncos are more likely to stick with their [Trevor] Siemien-Lynch duo.”

It’s hard to imagine that Lynch would wow his own team in spring practices to the point that they would suddenly not be interested in a short-term upgrade. Lynch just turned 23-years-old, so it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for him to ride the pine one more year, and act as insurance for an older, injury prone player – like Romo.