Best move for him honestly. It seems the cowboys were not going to let him go for nothing and no one was going to offer what Dallas must have wanted so instead of not having any control in his future in football he took a good paying gig and did it his way.
I'd have to think it was medical issues, mainly the risk of back injury. No way the Cowboys could have kept Romo on the team going into the season (eating up all that cap space) just hoping to get a third rounder or so for him.
Why not? The savings they would make cap wise are not really relevant because the money would be unlikely to be reinvested this season. When I look at their depth chart they are pretty much sorted on the offensive side of the ball. I guess their main question mark is right tackle, but they have La'el Collins, Byron Bell, and Chaz Green as options to play that position if they don't address it in the draft. I suppose they could always use any cap savings on Austin Pasztor, but I think their answer is already on the roster. Outside of that perhaps they could use another receiver since after Dez Bryant there is a drop off, but there isn't much left in free agency. Defensively they have taken some hits with departures. Could they fill some holes via the players currently left on the market? Well, I suppose they could add a veteran corner like Sam Shields, Darrelle Revis, or Brandon Flowers; or look for a veteran safety like Lardarius Webb, Jarius Byrd or Corey Graham; or add someone like Devin Taylor, Jared Odrick or Sen'Derrick Marks to their D-Line rotation. But the reality is these players are all left on the market because they are either ageing players that have regressed, injury prone, or just inconsistent. So arguably the Cowboys could be better off adding to their defense through the draft and picking up these players on the cheap at a later date if they need to pick them up at all. So in a sense any cap savings they make right now by cutting Romo would be unlikely to make a significant difference to them. Granted they can't keep the guy as their backup quarterback forever, but they would have had the ability to hold onto him for this season even as a backup because he's not the type of player to cause issues behind the scenes. He's a high character guy and would continue to mentor Dak in his second year. I think that would be a positive and that's without considering the possibility that another team's quarterback could get injured and they might target Romo like the Vikings did with Bradford last year. That said, I still think the Cowboys would have been better off releasing him earlier to allow them to be more aggressive in free agency.
what's going to be intriguing is that first major injury to a qb in camp or preseason. it always happens.