Tony Romo, who has led the Dallas Cowboys to nowhere, reached an agreement with the team on a six-year, $108-million contract.
The move was made to clear salary-cap space and lock up what they consider their franchise quarterback, the highest-paid player in franchise history, according to league sources.
Cowboys chief operating officer Stephen Jones and one of Romo’s agents, CAA’s R.J. Gonser, spent recent days negotiating a deal that contains more guaranteed money than the six-year, $120.6 million contract that Joe Flacco recently signed with Baltimore, sources said.
Negotiations heated up this week, when the Cowboys submitted their first proposal before Romo’s side countered with their own. Negotiations continued at a feverish pace after a framework for the deal was established and middle ground was eventually reached.
By negotiating a new deal with Romo now, the Cowboys will lower his salary-cap number and free up money to sign other players such as former Lions linebacker Justin Durant and former Steelers Will Allen. The Cowboys have already agreed to a two-year, $4.4 million deal with Durant and also have an agreement with Allen.
For this, in part, the Cowboys can thank Romo, who was scheduled to count $16.8 million against the salary cap and will now count a small fraction of that amount.
Dallas didn’t want Romo to head into the last year of his contract, when he could have become an unrestricted free agent after the season. The sides have had on-and-off talks for most of March. The Cowboys hoped to sign Romo to an extension last summer, but he put contract talks on hold so he could concentrate on the season.
For as much criticism as Romo has come under, he still remains a proven commodity in a quarterback-hungry league.
The soon to be 33-year-old Romo is regarded as a top-10 quarterback. For days, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones had been saying a contract agreement with Romo was close. But now, it’s finally here. Dallas and Romo are tied together for years to come.
