CHUCK BURTON/Associated Press

For anyone who has pushed for the Dallas Cowboys to throw in the towel on quarterback Tony Romo before—this one's for you. According to ESPN's Mike Triplett in a recap of the new biography on Bill Parcells, Parcells: A Football Life, the former Cowboys coach said he nearly traded away the Pro Bowl quarterback.

According to the book, the Saints offered the Dallas Cowboys a third-round pick for quarterback Romo when Payton first took over as New Orleans’ coach in 2006 -- when Romo was still a backup. But Parcells and Dallas owner Jerry Jones wanted a second-round pick, which the Saints deemed too costly.

It was former Cowboys passing-game coordinator and current New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton who apparently made the push for Romo. Both Payton and Romo were record-setting quarterbacks at Eastern Illinois, which could explain the early connection between the two.

It also may explain why Romo chose a much smaller signing bonus to go to Dallas instead of heading to play for the Denver Broncos as an undrafted free agent.

Payton had pursued and developed Romo when Payton was the Cowboys’ passing-game coordinator under Parcells. Payton and Romo were both record-setting quarterbacks at Eastern Illinois. According to the book, Payton convinced Romo to accept a $15,000 bonus to sign with the Cowboys as an undrafted rookie in 2003, even though another Eastern Illinois product, Mike Shanahan, had offered $25,000 to try and lure Romo to Denver.

So, there it is. Romo was close to a future that wouldn't feature a star on his helmet, and some disgruntled fans nearly got exactly what they wanted. The question now becomes: What would life be like if Jerry Jones and Parcells had decided to pull the trigger on the potential deal? Would fans have truly wanted that to happen?

Potential Life Without Romo

While there's no doubting Romo's talent, as well as the level of quarterback that he's become, it's interesting to consider what may have been had he not played for Dallas. The first thing to consider is whom the Cowboys had on the roster at quarterback in 2006.

Drew Bledsoe was the starting quarterback at the beginning of the year, but Romo took over at halftime of their Week 7 matchup against the New York Giants. So the options at the time were either Bledsoe, Romo, Drew Henson or Jeff Mroz.

Now, if the Cowboys had received a second- or third-round pick, they very well could have gone with one of the available quarterbacks in the draft. For the sake of the argument, we'll assume that the Cowboys were looking at quarterbacks in the 2006, 2007 and 2008 drafts. Here's a breakdown of who was available in each draft.

Note that in each of these breakdowns, I did not include the players who were drafted before the first pick that the Cowboys had. Also, all quarterbacks are listed in the order they were selected.

2006 NFL Draft

Kellen Clemens

Tarvaris Jackson

Charlie Whitehurst

Brodie Croyle

Ingle Martin

Martin Omar Jacobs

Reggie McNeal

Bruce Gradkowski

D.J. Shockley

2007 NFL Draft

Kevin Kolb

John Beck

Drew Stanton

Trent Edwards

Jeff Rowe

Troy Smith

Jordan Palmer

Tyler Thigpen

2008 NFL Draft

Brian Brohm

Chad Henne

Kevin O'Connell

John David Booty

Dennis Dixon

Josh Johnson

Erik Ainge

Colt Brennan

Andre' Woodson

Matt Flynn

Alex Brink

Potential Draft Consensus

It's pretty safe to say that the Cowboys would have found very little in those three drafts, assuming they were selecting from a similar draft position each year. Many of those quarterbacks aren't even in the NFL anymore while the rest are true career backups.

Romo trumps the entire list without much of an argument.

Free Agent Quarterbacks From 2006-2008

We'll take it one step further here and look at the potential free agent quarterbacks over the same stretch. Out of the long list of free agent quarterbacks in that three-year span, there are very few who stand out.

One who must immediately come to mind is Drew Brees back in 2006. Aside from Brees, there aren't many options, as the rest of the list includes the likes of Chris Simms, Jon Kitna and Josh McCown, just to name a few.

The question in 2006 would become whether or not Brees would still sign with the Saints. If not, there's a chance he could have ended up as a Cowboy. What would life look like if we had flipped Brees and Romo over the last nine seasons? That's an argument for another day, but it would make for a fun one.

As for the 2007 free agent quarterbacks, it's another weak group. Along with Matt Schaub, who went on to be signed by the Houston Texans that year, the list includes Jeff Garcia, Brad Johnson, Shaun King and a few others.

Lastly, 2008 featured another underwhelming group of quarterbacks to choose from. Names such as Derek Anderson, Chad Pennington, Rex Grossman, Daunte Culpepper, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Josh McCown, Byron Leftwich and Billy Volek were all available. Any chance you'd take any of those guys over Romo? That would be a tough argument to make.

Final Consensus

I can feel pretty confident in stating that if the Cowboys had chosen to trade Romo for either a second- or third-round pick, they would have massively regretted it. The only way that the Cowboys could have potentially improved is if they had landed Brees as a free agent in 2006.

It's tough to even assume that would have happened though, as the Saints could have still grabbed Brees as their franchise quarterback. On top of that, the Cowboys started the year with Bledsoe as their quarterback, so they may not have even been in the conversation for Brees.

If Romo had gone to New Orleans, it would have left an unknown future for the Eastern Illinois product. He could truly be playing anywhere in the NFL at this point.

Overall, the Cowboys should thank the Saints for not accepting Romo for a second-round pick and be happy that they've had consistency at the quarterback position for nine years now. If they had traded him and stuck with Bledsoe while Brees went to New Orleans, we could potentially be in the midst of a brutal stretch in Dallas.