It wasn’t so long ago, not even two years, in fact, that Jay Cutler and Tony Romo found themselves in similar, uncertain situations.
It was late October 2006. Cutler and Romo were young, promising backups on the verge of permanently unseating a pair of veterans in Jake Plummer and Drew Bledsoe.
“Tony Romo might not be the answer,” Cutler said at the time. “I might not be the answer here.”
Cutler so far has been the answer in Denver, just as the team hoped he would when he was drafted No. 11 overall in 2006.
And Romo, perhaps less of a sure thing when he replaced Bledsoe in Week 5, has found himself in the small fraternity of elite quarterbacks for his play on the field — and a celebrity for his dating habits off it.
So less than two years since Cutler expressed some uncertainty about his future and Romo’s, they are entrenched as The Man on their respective squads, practicing against each other at Dove Valley on Wednesday and Thursday in advance of Saturday’s preseason game at Invesco Field.
“Experience is the greatest tool in this league at the quarterback position,” Romo said after Wednesday’s second practice. “Every year that goes by, I feel like you learn something that can be incorporated into your game.”
Cutler said Wednesday the Broncos could use these joint sessions as a way to compare themselves to a team that last year was 13-3 and is expected to be a Super Bowl contender this season.
“It gives us a good measuring stick to see where we are at and exactly how far we need to go,” Cutler said.
The same could be said for comparing Romo and Cutler, who finished the 2007 regular season — the first full season as a starter for both — with the following numbers. Romo had more yards (4,211 to Cutler’s 3,497), 16 more touchdowns (36 to 20) and five more interceptions (19 to 14). Romo’s completion percentage was 64.4, a shade better than Cutler’s 63.6.
Romo led the Cowboys to 13 wins and the playoffs, while the Broncos finished 7-9.
“They’re judged on wins, but yeah, I think Tony, he stepped into a team, had a better supporting cast at the time,” said Denver cornerback Dre Bly, who has spent the past three weeks practicing against Cutler and the past two days going against Romo. “If you get the right guys around (Cutler), the guy can step out and have a breakout year. If this team is going to go to the next level, it’s going to be because of Jay.”
What these four practices revealed is there is not much separating Cutler and Romo, who has been selected to the past two Pro Bowls.
Both are clearly in control, playing with a confidence and that prototypical quarterback swagger, and each led his respective offense to a touchdown in the two-minute drill late in Wednesday’s practice.
Cutler completed 9-of-10 passes in that drive for Denver — the incompletion was off the hands of Brandon Marshall — including a short touchdown pass to Eddie Royal.
Romo, in the final play of practice, faked calling a timeout and sneaked across the goal line.
Neither quarterback spoke with reporters Thursday.
But Broncos coach Mike Shanahan, who, like Romo, was once a college quarterback at Eastern Illinois, praised Romo’s development.
“I admire how quickly he reads coverages and gets the ball to the right spot,” Shanahan said. “He is going to have a heck of a year. You could see it out here.”
Lindsay H. Jones: 303-954-1262 or ljones@denverpost.com
This article has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to a reporting error, it listed incorrect 2007 statistics for Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo. The correct statistics are: 4,211 yards, 64.4 percent completion rate, 36 touchdowns, 19 interceptions.
