It was just a few days ago that Jerry Jones said that the Cowboys and quarterback Tony Romo weren’t yet at a place where they were ready to talk about a contract extension.
That made sense. Romo’s deal isn’t up until after the 2013 season and all of Jones’ window closing talk this offseason suggested that the team wasn’t quite ready to cast their lot with Romo for the long haul.
Either Jones was fudging when he said that such talks weren’t forthcoming, something’s changed in the team’s thinking in the last few days or a report from Ed Werder of ESPN is incorrect. Werder, who has been covering the Cowboys in one form or another for two decades, reports Friday that the team has approached Romo to let him know that they would like to extend his contract. Per Werder, preliminary talks between the two sides have taken place although it doesn’t sound like we should be clearing our calenders for a press conference announcing a new deal anytime soon.
Romo is playing out a six-year, $67.4 million deal and an extension would likely bring a higher annual value based on the deal Matt Schaub just signed with the Texans. Schaub can make up to $62 million over the four years of the extension he signed last weekend.
Extending Romo would potentially give the Cowboys a chance to draft and groom a successor behind him in the coming years. He’ll be 33 at the start of next season, so it wouldn’t be something the team needs to do straightaway but it would be the most effective way to address the position in both the present and the future.