With news that Tony Romo will be cut by the Dallas Cowboys and retire to start a career in broadcasting – assuming that’s not some plot by Romo to get the Cowboys to cut him, so he can “change his mind” and sign with another team – it sends some ripples through the rest of the NFL.

There are many reasons Romo was the most interesting saga in the NFL this offseason. There were plenty of moving pieces involved. Here are the key parties affected by Tuesday’s big news:

Houston Texans: This is the most obvious one. The Texans seemed to be the leader to land Romo. They traded Brock Osweiler, giving the Cleveland Browns a second-round pick to dump his contract, and it seemed obvious the saved salary cap room would go to a Romo pursuit. Now it seems the Texans gave away a second-round pick with little benefit.

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What will the Texans do?

They’ve tried talking up Tom Savage, but Savage has 92 uneven NFL passes and hasn’t been able to stay healthy. The Texans had the No. 1 defense last year in terms of yards allowed, get J.J. Watt back this season, but they still have a gaping hole at quarterback. They’ve done OK without great quarterbacks under Bill O’Brien, but Romo might have allowed them to actually contend for the AFC crown. Without him, they are probably still stuck in the middle, good enough to perhaps get to the playoffs again but probably not good enough to make a serious run.

Tom Savage: Savage played very well off the bench in a win last season over the Jacksonville Jaguars, wasn’t too good the following week against the Cincinnati Bengals, then got hurt the next week in the regular-season finale. We have no idea what to expect from Savage. But he has a phenomenal opportunity, at least for the moment. If the Texans don’t land anyone better, Savage will find himself as a starting quarterback for a team that has one of the NFL’s best defenses and legitimate playoff hopes. Savage stands to benefit the most from Tuesday’s news.

Patrick Mahomes? Deshaun Watson? Some other rookie QB?: Had the Texans landed Romo, they wouldn’t have had a tremendous urgency to draft a quarterback. Now they do. The Texans won’t draft high enough to get a top quarterback, but Mahomes could be in play, as could someone like Watson or DeShone Kizer if they fall. Romo’s retirement could help out a quarterback in this year’s draft class because it opens up one more option in the first round.

Denver Broncos: Although the Broncos made sure to downplay any Romo speculation at every turn, it would have been foolish for them to not be interested. They played it well; now they can go back to incumbent quarterbacks Trevor Siemian and Paxton Lynch and tell them they never pursued Romo and that was just speculation.

Romo’s retirement takes that option off the board for always-aggressive general manager John Elway, and now the Broncos have to try to make it back to a Super Bowl with a pair of unproven quarterbacks. Romo’s retirement also had to be welcomed news for Siemian and Lynch, who don’t need to worry about having a new quarterback to compete with anymore.

Jay Cutler: There was no market developing for Cutler, and there still might not be. There hasn’t been any indication the Texans are interested in Cutler. But that was before the Romo option disappeared. Houston has to at least discuss the longtime Chicago Bears starter, right? And while Colin Kaepernick doesn’t seem to fit O’Brien’s offense, one would assume there will be a long talk in the Texans front office about every available possibility at quarterback. Every veteran quarterback looking for a job got a possible life raft.

CBS, Fox and NBC: Those are the three apparent possibilities for Romo’s next job (early reports say Romo agreed with CBS to replace Phil Simms). Romo has never been a broadcaster, but plenty of people believe he’ll do well in that line of work. Romo’s debut season in the booth will be one of the most anticipated in recent memory.

Jerry Jones: One has to imagine that Jones is thrilled with how this played out. When Jones was holding onto Romo, not releasing him when it was clear there was no chance for a trade, it seemed that perhaps Jones just didn’t want Romo going to a Super Bowl with a team other than his own. Maybe that had nothing to do with it, but Romo’s retirement means Jones doesn’t have to deal with the guffaws that would come with Romo having more team success in Houston than he did in Dallas. This all worked out pretty well for Jones, it appears.

Romo’s legacy: Here’s what had to be tough for Romo making the choice to walk away, assuming that he doesn’t change his mind: He has some holes in an otherwise fine football resume.

Had he gone to the Texans or some other team and taken them to a Super Bowl, we’re probably talking about a Pro Football Hall of Fame resume. As for now he’s on the borderline, and probably on the wrong side of the bubble because his teams didn’t win enough. That’s not entirely fair, but it’s how quarterbacks are judged.

That’s a reason why we’ll hear speculation about a Romo return every time a team needs a quarterback this season, maybe next season, and maybe even the season after that (this will basically replace Jon Gruden coaching rumors as our most annoying NFL rumor). Don’t forget that during Romo’s memorable news conference last season, he said the desire to compete “may burn more now than ever.” He knows what one playoff run would mean to his legacy. Even if he has retired from playing today, it won’t be easy to stay away.

More from Shutdown Corner on Tony Romo’s retirement
• Tony Romo cut by Cowboys, retires to join broadcast booth
• CBS wins bidding war for Romo, makes him analyst on its No. 1 broadcast team
• Bonnie Bernstein: ‘Total crap’ that Romo gets No. 1 CBS job with no experience
• Is Tony Romo the most overrated and underrated quarterback the NFL has seen?
• Jerry Jones, Dak Prescott among those to heap praise on Tony Romo upon his retirement

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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