IRVING, Texas – Bill Callahan said Thursday that the Cowboys coaching staff has talked recently about lightening the load on Tony Romo.
The Cowboys offensive coordinator and offensive line coach said the staff is trying to simplify Romo's duties at the line of scrimmage before each snap.
"Simplifying not only the play-call but what we're doing within the realm of the play-call," Callahan said.
Like Tom Brady and Peyton Manning do in their offenses, Romo exits the huddle with several options, giving him the ability to change plays before the ball is snapped.
"What you want to be able to do is limit a little bit of that because it can get out of hand sometimes, not that it has, but it just allows the quarterback to function a little bit freer," Callahan said. "When you're trying to get everybody together and steady everybody and get more consistency and better execution sometimes the answer is try to pull back a little bit so that you can do a little bit better. Less is better in our minds.
"We're trying to get to that point but we're not taking things away from Tony and what he does best because he has great command of the system. He does an outstanding job of communicating calls and changing plays. He has a real uniqueness that I've found since watching him play since I've been here, he really studies defenses and knows what checks to get into and knows what switches to pull to get us in the right play. I don't think we're trying to take that away from him by any stretch."
So how do you simplify it for Romo after the ball is snapped?
"Hand it off," Callahan joked. "No, just kidding. … I think Jason [Garrett] and Wade Wilson do a great job with his reads in the passing game. It's simplistic, it's not very complicated, his progression is pretty simple. We try not to make it really taxing on him mentally. He has a good feel for it."
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