Tony Romo's contract has been weighing on Dallas Cowboy fans. As the quarterback is entering the final year of his contract, the team is attempting to work out an extension before he would be able to become a free agent. While attending the NFL annual meeting in Phoenix, team owner Jerry Jones said he understood fan's concern over the pending contract extension. He told beat writers that a deal with the quarterback would occur very soon.
Romo is entering the final year of a contract that is scheduled to make him $11.5 million in base salary. However, his cap hit is upwards of $16.8 million and is hurting the team's ability to sign other key free agents or have the money to sign draft picks. If the team is able to work out an extension, it would free up a large amount of cap space.
"We are involved in dialogue. We are involved in negotiations. It's just not the thing to do for him or me to say we ought to have something done by midnight or tomorrow unless it's that imminent," Jones said.
Romo stopped talks with the Cowboys about his extension during last season so that it would not become a distraction for the team. Now that it is the offseason, negotiations are heating up. The Cowboys would like to have a deal done by April before the NFL draft.
Romo could be looking for a deal close to what Joe Flacco signed for this offseason; however he does not have the numbers that Flacco has been able to put up. Romo has been less than clutch since becoming the starting quarterback in 2006. As he approaches 33, he has yet to lead the Cowboys to any sort of success in the post-season, or regular season for that matter. Last season he threw for a career high 4,903 yards on 648 attempts. In his career, he has thrown 177 touchdowns and 91 interceptions.
Dallas does not have any quality depth in the quarterback position and needs to re-sign Romo sooner rather than later. Jones indicated the team is not necessarily in a rush to get the deal done since he is confident that the two sides will be able to agree on something. If they have any hope at improving other aspects of the team, the contract extension must get done in a quick mannor.