You may be right but I don't think so. IF you trade/release Romo then all the spread out bonus money is accelerated into the next two years. When they restructured his contract in the 2015 offseason, he didn't take a paycut and he did receive all but one million of base salary as a guaranteed 16M bonus. That was 5M as a signing bonus, 1.635 M as an option bonus and 5.7M as a restructured bonus. All of that and more was spread out thru 2019 as:
2017 5M signing bonus and 5.7M as a restructured bonus
2018 5.7M restructured bonus
2019 3.2M restructured bonus
Those all get accelerated into the next two years of his imagined release. That's 19.6M in bonus or at the least 9.8M for those two years. To my knowledge there is no way to put that money into the other camp unless it is in the form of draft picks and/or players with small contracts whom can still play for another 2-3 years you can also acquire. Perhaps there are other ways beyond my imagination.
Where are you getting your data?
restructuring bonuses work like signing bonus. Money up front. The bonus is divided among remaining years (sometimes less) on the deal and added to the already divided signing bonus (and and previous restructure bonuses). The money is guaranteed because the player already has it. the additional prorated bonus is not guaranteed. It already happened. It is a fictional number that only applies to the salary cap.
Every time he restructures, he takes a smaller base salary in return for a restructure bonus. He does it for immediate money and the team does it for cap room. The consequences is the team is enlarging the future cap hit because that bonus gets spread out (cap hit purposes only) over the remaining part of his deal.
From overthecap.com...
On March 4, 2014 Romo converted $12.5 million of his 2014 base salary into a signing bonus.
So his 2014 base salary became $1 million and that $12.5 million was added to the prorated bonus column.
According to the Dallas Morning News, Romo restructured his contract on April 1, 2015 and converted $16 million of his salary to a signing bonus. The move created $12.8 million in cap space.
So again, his 2015 base salary went down to $1 million and the team once again pushed money down the road (cap hit purposes).
He currently has an $8,500,000 base salary, with a $12,335,000 prorated bonus hit which makes his total cap hit $20,835,000.
Next year he has a $14,000,000 base salary, a $10,7000,000 prorated bonus hit, totaling a $ 24,700,000 2017 cap hit.
His remaining base salaries (2017 - $14M, 2018 - $19.5M, and 2020 $20.5M) are not guaranteed. After this year, the team is responsible for the remaining $19.6 M of prorated bonus money. Again, this is only in regards of salary cap hit. Tony already received this money through signing bonuses, roster bonuses, and restructuring bonuses.
If he is cut or traded next off-season, that $19.6M prorated bonus immediately accelerates onto the 2017 cap. But the team is no longer on the hook for his 2017 base salary of $14,000,000, which again, is not guaranteed.
So Romo would have cost:
$14,000,000 2017 base salary plus $10,700,000 2017 prorated bonus equals $24,700,000 2017 total cap hit.
Cutting or trading him creates that $19,600,000 accelerated prorated bonus hit.
$24,700,000 - $19,600,000 = $5,100,000 of additional cap space than the Cowboys had with Romo on the roster.
This also gets Romo completely off the books before the 2018 season.
Another way to look at it is Romo on the 2017 salary cap is $24.7M, Romo off the cap is $19M.6M in dead money.
They can delay that dead money some by making him a June 1st cut (doesn't apply if traded).
You mentioned that it gets spread into "two years". That is only true in the June 1st release situation.
