Cowboys Still Focused On Locking Up Tony Romo

Dallas Cowboys executive VP Stephen Jones told reporters on Tuesday that they’re still focused on getting QB Tony Romo locked up for the coming years.

“Tony is a key piece of what we’re about going forward,” Jones said, via ESPN Dallas. “We’re certainly going to be looking at his situation (in) time. We’ve historically (extended contracts) with quarterbacks for the Dallas Cowboys ahead of time. We did it with Troy (Aikman) and we certainly want to look at that with Tony so we can all move forward in terms of how we want to play around our salary cap with our team. Tony is the key piece in terms of how your cap is represented.”

Jones actually makes a great point here. Say what you will about the idea of committing to Romo for the foreseeable future, but if they’ve determined that he’s their best option, then they need to get something worked out sooner rather than later. Dallas could structure his contract so that they have some additional cap space to work with this offseason.

Romo, 32, is in the final year of his contract and will make $11.5 million for the 2013 season and carries a staggering cap figure of $16.8 million.

The Cowboys are almost $20 million over the cap as of now, so reducing that figure has to be their top priority. There’s been talk of Dallas releasing OT Doug Free, which would have a decent impact on that figure as well, but if they’re sold on Romo, they should work to get that number reduced.

“As I said, your quarterback, even when you have a good one and we’re certainly lucky to have one of the best, is going to represent a good piece of your salary cap,” said Jones. “How you manage that is important. He understands that and we do, too.”