Tony Romo Contract Details

Update:

ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports that the Cowboys have reached an agreement with QB Tony Romo on a six-year deal that will make him the highest paid player in team history.

Details of Romo’s contract extension:

• Seven-years (six-years on top of his 2013 base salary)
• $119 million in total
• $55 million guaranteed
• Includes a $25 million signing bonus. 
• 2013 base salary will be $1.5 million
• This reduces his cap figure from  $16,818 million to $7,045 million.
• He’ll make $57 million in the first three years.

Romo’s Cap Figures, per Albert Breer:

• 2013 – $11.82 million
• 2014 – $21.77 million
• 2015 – $25.27 million
• 2016 – $15.14 million
• 2017 – $19 million
• 2018 – $19.5 million
• 2019 – $20.5 million

More details from Breer:

• $15 million guaranteed in 2013 and 2014.
• 2015 – $15 million of his $17 million base salary is guaranteed for injury.
• 2015 – $7.5 million of his base salary is fully guaranteed if he’s on the roster on the third day of 2014 league year
• Another $7.5 million would be fully guaranteed if he’s on the roster on the third day of 2015 league year

Romo, 32, will be under contract through his age-39 season.

Previous reports indicated that Romo’s previous deal prevented him from being franchised next year, so which clearly left him and his agent with plenty of leverage in this negotiation. Dallas had to free up some much needed cap space while ensuring that they had a quarterback beyond the 2013 season and this was the easiest way of doing so.

While you could easily argue that a seven-year, $119.5 million contract that includes $55 million guaranteed is way too much Tony Romo, it’s doubtful that he’ll see all of this money.

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Todd Archer of ESPN Dallas is reporting that a contract extension for QB Tony Romo is “imminent” and could be finalized in the next few hours.

Ian Rapoport reported last night that the Dallas Cowboys will not be able to franchise QB Tony Romo following the 2013 season.

According to sources with “in-depth knowledge of the language” in Romo’s contract, the final two years remaining on his current deal would void if he’s still on their roster at the end of the 2013 league year.

This means Dallas won’t even have the opportunity to apply the tag before Romo would be an unrestricted free agent.

Albert Breer provides some further details regarding the situation.

• $24.99 million of Romo’s $67.4 million contract still hasn’t been accounted for on Dallas’ cap.
  
• If the Cowboys were able to franchise Romo next year, his cap figure would be a staggering $30 million.
• Breer adds that the $24.99 million needs to be factored into Romo’s next contract.
• Dallas would have to carry $8.181 million in dead money if they were to allow Romo to walk next year.

This explains why the Cowboys have been so adamant that a deal would get done at some point in the near future. Romo’s agent deserves a lot of credit for designing this contract that has left him with plenty of leverage despite the fact that he’s yet to have postseason success.

On top of that, the Cowboys could use the cap relief that would come from an extension with Romo as he currently counts $16.8 million against their 2013 salary cap.

It seems realistic that a deal could be reached before the start of training camp, but negotiations could always drag out beyond then.