On the day the Cowboys signed Jay Ratliff to a five-year contract extension, the club also made another significant move that will help not only this year's salary cap but down the line as well.
Tony Romo restructured his contract in a move that saved the Cowboys about $6.5 million on the 2011 salary cap.
Basically, the Cowboys turned most of Romo's $9 million salary this year into a bonus, which he gets up front. Romo received an $8.1 million roster bonus that will be spread out over the length of the contract. The Cowboys actually added three years to the length of Romo's deal to help the immediate cap hit. However, those years will be easily voided down.
Instead of counting $12.962 million on this year's cap, Romo's cap charge for 2011 is about $6.4 million.
The Cowboys also reworked contracts to DeMarcus Ware and Miles Austin last month in an attempt to clear off some cap space in training camp. The Cowboys now have about $18 million in cap space this year, but expect them to roll most of that into next year, where there will be plenty of "dead money" stemming from contracts that were terminated this year to players such as Marion Barber, Roy Williams, Leonard Davis, Andre Gurode and Marc Colombo.
