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The Cowboys are not in the salary-cap hell of past years, as they have roughly $8-$10 million in space under the 2015 cap, which is projected to be between $140 and 143 million.
But for the Cowboys to have any chance at keeping receiver Dez Bryant and running back DeMarco Murray, the top priorities in free agency, as well as pursue other needs, they will need to create more room.
With a base salary of $17 million to go along with a league-high salary-cap number of $27.773 million, Romo is a natural target for restructuring.
It was simply how it was intended in the first place.
“This was carefully thought out when we made our agreement with Tony,” owner Jerry Jones said. “We knew that as we moved along there will be, reallocation is the best way to say it with his salary, moving it around so that at a given time we could put the best group together with his supporting cast.”
The Cowboys can convert $16 million of Romo’s $17 million base salary into a signing bonus, creating roughly $12.8 million in cap room.
The Cowboys did the same thing with Romo last year, converting the balance of his $13.5 million base salary into a bonus, creating $10 million in salary-cap space.
Of course, the downside to restructuring Romo’s contract is that it puts dead money on the back end of the deal and can be construed as mortgaging your future for your present.
And considering that Romo is going to be 35 next season, adding money to the back end of his deal can be dangerous if he doesn’t finish out the bulk of the contract.
A Romo restructure would add $4 million in dead money to his cap number in each of the next four years. It would blossom to $21.6 million in 2016, $25.5 million in 2017, $26 million in 2018 and $24.5 million in 2019.
“Obviously, you don’t like to mortgage your future if you can help it,” vice president Stephen Jones said. “We started making the move toward being a younger team and going a different direction in terms of pushing money out, so we’d prefer not to do that.
“But at the same time, every situation has ramifications, and you have to make tough decisions sometimes. Depending on the situation, whether it’s Dez, DeMarco, a pass-rusher, we’d certainly have to take a look at all of the above.”
The balance for the Cowboys is trying to build off their success this season and field the best team possible in 2015 to make a run at the Super Bowl without damaging the financial future of the franchise.
But Jerry Jones and Stephen Jones readily admit this is a unique situation because the Cowboys are ready to win now following an impressive 2014 season, including a 12-4 record, the NFC East title and their first playoff win since 2009.
Although Romo endured back surgeries the past two offseasons, the Cowboys are very excited about his future, as he is coming off the best season of his career.
He tossed 34 touchdowns to just nine interceptions while leading the league in quarterback rating and completion percentage.
They truly believe Romo has a good chance to finish out his contract, especially playing behind the league’s best offensive line and with the new run-oriented attack.
The Cowboys are more focused on winning now than losing Romo, which is why the plan to restructure him is pretty much a foregone conclusion.
According to Jerry Jones, it was the art of the original deal in the first place and the first step toward making the Cowboys players in free agency as they focus on trying to sign Bryant and Murray as well as added pieces to improve the defensive line.
“We all realize that anything you push forward that if you don’t use it it’ll cost you cap space that you could use for other players,” Jerry Jones said. “The effort is to right now put together the best value we can using those dollars, and that’s the art of the deal. I will tell you when I look at Tony, I certainly do see four or five more years, so nothing scares me four or five years out.”
Clarence Hill covers the Cowboys for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. All quotations obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
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