RG3 Offers Advice to Tony Romo: 'Dont Listen to Critics, You're Great'

With the Dallas Cowboys missing the NFL playoffs for the third straight season, losing in yet another winner-take-all scenario, starting quarterback Tony Romo has become an easy target. Everyone from fans and pundits to even former Cowboys players such as Deion Sanders and Michael Irvin have let the QB have it. But while Romo has many critics, he also has some surprising supporters, such as rival Robert Griffin III, QB for the Washington Redskins.

Many have noted Griffin's wise-beyond-his-years persona, and that sentiment appears to extend beyond just his performance on the field. After delivering a punishing, season-ending loss to the Cowboys, the rookie Redskins QB reportedly ran straight for Romo, threw his arms around him in a big hug and offered his opponent some sobering advice.

"Hey, Tony. I just wanted to say to you, don't listen to what anybody else is saying about you. You're a great quarterback, man. This game doesn't mean anything," Griffin is heard saying on the latest installment of Showtimes's "Inside the NFL."

Griffin's words certainly carry the candor of a veteran quarterback who can see things beyond the big game; and he has a point. Romo is far from the worst QB in the NFL, a title most thrust on him without considering that he's consistently been ranked among the top 10 QBs in the league. Even if he can crumble under pressure-heavy situations and games, Romo was ranked ninth in Football Outsiders' value-per-play metric, so he's still among the league's best quarterbacks.

Of course, there's plenty of spark behind the fire fueling critics ire with Romo. The Cowboys recorded an 8-8 record for the second consecutive season, and Romo played what may have been his worst football all season long after putting up record numbers in previous games. Following the brutal lashing from the Redskins, Romo is now 1-6 for the Cowboys when the playoffs are on the line.

Now analysts for the NFL Network, Sanders and Irvin didn't mince words when it came time to offer their opinion of the beleaguered QB, whose time in Dallas has been marked by as many knee-buckling failures as it has surprise successes.

"[Cowboys owner] Jerry Jones said it earlier, if you're not in the playoffs, it's not a successful season," Irvin said. "I'm never going to say 8-8 is a success, not a guy who holds three rings. Playing hard is good. Winning is better. You watch all these guys, Robert Griffin III, Eli Manning, Michael Vick -- these are top quarterbacks, drafted in top spots, they know and feel like they belong in that situation. Tony Romo is the only undrafted QB in the East and sometimes, in those moments, he feels like, 'I have to prove to everybody I belong here,' and tries to do so much and that gets him into trouble," said Irvin of Romo.

Sanders was similarly disappointed in the QB: "How many times are we going to sit here as fans and say, 'Here we go again?' " Sanders said. "I love to win at all costs. 1-6 in elimination games, that's telling me something is not getting better around here. The kind of person I am, I need to jump off and try to correct this thing.... I can't put this one thing all on Tony. But Tony brings me to the same situation at the conclusion of every year. Take a picture, this date, and see if we're playing the same picture next year. We always think it's going to get better, but it's the same-old same-old."

Regardless of the criticism, Romo's job appears to be secure for the 2013-14 season, at the very least. Owner and general manager Jerry Jones says he is still behind the besieged QB.

"Tony is a tremendous asset and he's an asset that is going to be with the Dallas Cowboys for as far as I am concerned, a long time," he said.