Gunslinger Romo takes on look of a marksman

IRVING, Texas The Dallas Cowboys' last game was four and a half months ago.

The 2010 season starts in a little more than three months. If Cowboys fans are in need of a little off-season cheer, tight end Jason Witten has a tidbit relating to quarterback Tony Romo.

"He just continues to get better," Witten said.

Wade Phillips also likes what he sees. The Cowboys are in their third week of organized team activities, and the head coach knows that the quarterback is in command of the offense.

"Tony's very comfortable," Phillips said. "Just seeing him out there very comfortable at his position and his stature within the team as far as leadership is concerned. I think he feels like the other guys are going to look up to him and he'll say or do the right things as far as leadership."

Romo has made good use of previous off-seasons, and he continues to work on his technique, footwork and balance during training sessions.

"For me personally, I look back at each year and assess what I did good, what I did poorly and what areas I need to improve in to go to the next level as a quarterback," Romo said. "I'd like to think that every year that's gone by, I continue to improve."

While there is little doubt that Romo has become a more refined quarterback, his statistics have been remarkably consistent.

He became the starting quarterback six games into the 2006 season. In the nearly four full seasons since, Romo has averaged 290, 263, 265 and 280 passing yards per game, respectively.

His passer rating has been 95.1, 97.4, 91.4 and 97.6.

The major statistical improvement was last season when he had only nine interceptions. That was even fewer than the 13 he had when he started only 10 games in 2006. He had 19 in 2007 and 14 in 13 games in 2008, in which he missed three games with a pinkie injury.

Phillips said the coaching staff wanted Romo to work on decision-making last off-season and that Romo has "continued to do those things we ask him to do and concentrate on those.

"We don't see the looseness that we saw, which helps him to progress to other things," Phillips said. "He spent a lot of time on that last year and it paid off. Now he feels comfortable."

Romo said Tuesday that he has another area of his game he is working on, but he doesn't want to talk about it right now.

"I'm pretty excited about something I worked on that will help tremendously in certain situations," he said. "I'm excited. It's going to be fun. It's always about improving and just getting better from year to year, and that's just another step in the process."

In his first full year as a starter in 2007, Romo set a Cowboys record with 4,211 yards passing. He surpassed that last year with 4,483. With the addition of rookie receiver Dez Bryant, Romo may have a chance to set another record in 2010.

"He's really confident and he's starting to bring out the best in his other receivers," Witten said. "Playing that set we had (Tuesday), you look out there and see Dez, Roy (Williams) and Miles (Austin) and you can't help but to get excited."

Phillips said that Romo was particularly sharp Tuesday.

"He does a great job of moving around and throwing the ball, and he seemed to get better and better at that even in the pocket," Phillips said. "When he gets out of the pocket, he's really dangerous.

"(Tuesday) he made a great throw to Miles out of the pocket and he made a great throw to Sam Hurd in the pocket, but he was moving around. He can go back and set up and throw it as good as anybody. And he moves around well and finds people well, but now he's moving around finding them and putting it right on the money."

The bottom line for the Cowboys is the quarterback is playing loose and confident. Even in the off-season, that's good news for any team.