Early word is that Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo fractured his left, non-throwing collarbone today. If this is indeed the case, I have plenty to say about it. I don’t want to say that quarterback non-throwing collarbone fractures are my favorite NFL injury, but yeah… they kind of are. I know that sounds weird, but this is the injury that got me off the couch and started this whole weird blog. Remember when Aaron Rodgers fractured his left collarbone back in 2013, and it turned into a huge story about how he might make it back for a Thanksgiving game against the Lions in less than four weeks? That’s the injury that got me started, and I wrote about that here. At the time, I was irritated that nobody was using Tony Romo’s 2010 collarbone fracture as even a starting point for the discussion of when Rodgers might realistically return. If you don’t know the details, Romo missed 8 weeks, and was said to be nearing a return when, instead, he suffered an unknown setback and was put on injured reserve for the last two game of the season. Due to that timeline, I thought the, “will he or won’t he,” talk about a possible Rodgers return at less than 4 weeks to be ludicrous. And I was right. Rodgers, despite all the daily chatter, missed exactly 7 games.
After the case of Rodgers, we now had two recent examples of fractured, non-throwing collarbone QB RTPs. One was 7 weeks, one was 8 weeks, but with a setback and IR, however you want to score that. I could go 8 weeks or I could go 10 weeks, or 10+ weeks for Romo; they’d all be shades of correct. Given all that, I was perplexed when Eagles QB Nick Foles, after suffering the same injury in 2014, was given an initial timeline of, “4-6 weeks.” I blasted everyone online, and read up on that here if you like. Despite the optimism, Foles missed 8 weeks, and then the season ended. Had the Eagles made the playoffs, Foles might’ve returned.
But of course the big question is what we should reasonably expect for a Tony Romo return. Obviously, I don’t know for sure. I have no details of his injury, and I can’t tell you how it compares to the exact details of Rodger’s, Foles, or Romo’s previous collarbone fracture. But what I can tell you is that anything shy of, “6-8 weeks,” is probably ridiculously optimistic. Using history as my guide, I’d spitball a best case scenario return for Romo at Week 10, November 15th, after missing 7 games. He could prove me wrong and come back a little earlier, but it wouldn’t be much earlier. If things don’t go well though, Romo could easily miss 8 or 9 weeks, even longer. Some of this might become more clear as more news leaks out. All I’m here to say is that if anyone tells you an estimate that is closer to one month, you have my blessing to laugh in their face.
