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Tony Romo Extension Is Imperative for Dallas Cowboys' Future Success | Bleacher Report

Locking up quarterback Tony Romo to a new extension remains important to theDallas Cowboys not only for the immediate salary cap relief, but also for ensuring the long-term health of the game's most important position.

Talks to accomplish such a deal appear to be heating up.

Owner and general manager Jerry Jones said Tuesday at the NFL Owner's Meetings that Cowboys fans need not worry about how close the two sides are to agreeing to the extension, via Clarence Hill of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

Probably what concerns them about a timetable is the fact that they don't know that it won't be weeks out...But I'm not concerned that we are looking at a drawn out thing here. I'm not concerned that is going to in any way hamper any decision we want to make personnel wise over the next few weeks.

Asked to elaborate on if his statement meant the Cowboys were close to a deal with Romo, Jones said, "I'm okay with [saying] that."

Jones knows that getting an extension completed with Romo remains the Cowboys' top offseason priority.

Romo's current cap number of $16.8 million in 2013 ($11.5 million base, $5.3 prorated signing bonus) continues to restrict what Dallas can do to improve a roster that finished 8-8 last season. According to Hill, the Cowboys have just $102,000 in cap space for 2013, the lowest remaining in the NFL.

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Restructuring Romo could potentially save millions on the cap and allow Jones to both pursue other free agents and eventually sign draft picks. Dallas simply doesn't have the money to do either as it currently stands.

The continuing battle against the salary cap has kept the Cowboys quieter than usual this offseason.

However, Romo's extension goes beyond just money.

Locking up the 32-year-old quarterback ensures the Cowboys have a more-than-capable player at the game's most important position for the foreseeable future.

Romo, who will enter his seventh season in Dallas as the unquestioned starter, threw for a career-high 4,903 yards in 2012. He also tossed 28 touchdowns, the fifth time he has thrown at least 25 in a season.

Maybe more importantly, Romo finished with a passer rating over 90.0 (90.5) for the seventh consecutive season, despite facing as much pressure as any NFL quarterback.

Recently, Stephen Jones iterated the teams' confidence in Safety Matt Johnson. However, owner and ever-vocal, Jerry Jones, seems to be leaning a different direction.

"I like Church, don't know about Johnson," Jones said. "But I am with Church, and I think we'll be able to, these guys, the defense has some simplistic aspects to it that we haven't had, and we need range and guys that can run, and I think we can get that... that doesn't necessarily fit your experienced veteran that knows what to do but a little long in the tooth. That doesn't fit that. What fits it is guys that can just really have range and run, and they feel like they can simplify it to the point they can play those guys. Johnson would be one, but we don't know about him, but he's certainly a good place to start for not knowing."

The four year pro, Barry Church, tore his achilles and was out for the season. Jerry Jones doesn't seem to believe an achilles injury will have any negative implications on Church's ability to effectively cover the field. Church has 54 career tackles, 1forced fumble and 1 fumble recovery. It is likely that the Cowboys will look to add depth to the safety position in the 2013 NFL Draft.

We've covered a lot of the free agency and NFL Draft topics here on BTB, but there is something I wanted to really focus on. TheDallas Cowboys have come out and publicly stood by using free agency to the best of their ability to plug up their needs and then use the draft as a method of taking the best player available.

Back in February of 2012, Jason Garrett talked about free agency and draft strategy. His comments give us a pretty clear picture of what the organization is trying to accomplish in the offseason.

"In a perfect world, what you want to try to do is go into the draft without needs," coach Jason Garrett said. "I think you tend to draft worse when you say, 'I think we need to draft this position or that position.' And regardless of how objective you want to make that process, you invariably say, 'OK, we have a need here, so maybe we bump a player up ahead of this guy when they're really probably pretty similar."

"In an ideal situation you want to address your needs prior to the draft. Hard to do that, but you're trying to do that so you can draft as purely as possible. We couldn't do that last year."

That is actually a very fundamentally sound strategy because it allows the franchise to enter the draft without having to reach for a player because of a certain need, but there are going to be times where you have to address the needs of your team. It's very difficult to draft with a clear conscience when you have a glaring need at a certain position and this is exactly what happened to the Cowboys back in 2011.

Back in the 2011 NFL Draft, the Cowboys war room held the 9th overall pick and had a difficult decision to make. It really came down to two players for them to pick from. J.J. Watt was the up-and-coming defensive end who was the type of player that could have come in and started for them day one at defensive end and became a great player in the 3-4 defense that was being run at the time. The Cowboys didn't exactly have premier talents on their roster at defensive end, but they had a couple of players who would give them solid but not spectacular results.

The other player they had to choose from was Tyron Smith and he was the 20-year-old physical freak that was considered to be the best offensive tackle prospect to enter the draft in a very long time. There were far too many issues on the offensive line for the Cowboys to ignore and they wanted to erase the memories of Marc Colombo at right tackle. The decision to take Smith may have come down to need, but there was also the possibility that the war room felt he was the best player available on their board.

In January of 2011, Stephen Jones said that the team was going to take the best available player.

"We're going to take the best player that's available when it comes time for us to pick," Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said. "I know that's the old saying that people get tired of hearing about, but that's what we need to do with this team. You never know who is going to be injured and who is not going to work out from year-to-year, so you just need to take good football players, and that's what we're going to do."

It's easy to sit here and play the hindsight game now, but the Cowboys really couldn't go wrong with that selection. They were either going to get a franchise defensive end or a franchise offensive tackle. Both players fit a need, but they were also the best players available for the Cowboys. Bob Sturm took a closer look at the decision, but he also comes away with a similar conclusion that the Cowboys couldn't go wrong with either player.

I remember the discussion like it was yesterday with some people close to the scene: There is no wrong answer here. It is a play on "What is versus What could be". That means, quite simply, that JJ Watt is seen as a very productive player who is a really hard worker and team leader. But, Smith is the youngest player in the draft and could be a generational talent at left tackle. He is good, but he could be amazingly great.

So, given that both positions were positions of extreme need, you are going to have to choose. And whichever you don't choose, will likely have a void at that spot until you address it down the road.

At the time, I was completely sold that Smith was the right pick. Especially given the Cowboys state of chaos at offensive line. They knew that they had Doug Free, but otherwise, the cupboard was bare at tackle throughout the entire organization. Meanwhile, they at least had replacement level defensive ends for the 3-4. And, they treated that position as a very low-level priority in that scheme anyway, explaining to all who would listen that the job of the 3-4 DE is not to rack up stats. Even though we know that this is not true in many places not named Dallas.

During the Free Agency period of 2010, we saw the Chicago Bulls frantically dumping salaries in an attempt to free cap space and make a bid at some of the top Free Agent Superstars in the NBA such as Lebron James and Dwayne Wade. Part of this process included trading Forward Tyrus Thomas to the Charlotte Bobcats for Acie Law, Flip Murray and a 'Protected' future first-round draft pick. Coming off an 8.8PPG, 6.3RPG season and shooting 48% from the floor, Tyrus Thomas was no stud. I'll never fully comprehend what the Charlotte Bobcats saw in Thomas that warranted trading a first-rond pick for him.

In the end, big name Free Agents gave the cold shoulder to the Bulls. Chicago was only able to sign PF Carlos Boozer ( I've noticed that I no longer hear fans cry 'Amnesty'. Change of heart... for now!) and a few role players; SF Kyle Korver, SG Ronnie Brewer. Nothing to get excited about. But that's besides the point. The key component of that trade is the 'Protected' first-round pick.

The details of this draft pick are as follows:

2012 - First-Round Pick (Lottery-Protected),

2013 - First-Round Pick (Top-12 Protected),

2014 - First-Round Pick (Top-10 Protected),

2015 - First-Round Pick (Top-8 Protected), or

2016 - First-Round Pick (Unprotected).

The 'Protected' aspect of this pick essentially allows the Bobcats to renege, to a certain degree, on the pick. Because the Bobcats will have a Top-12 pick, they will keep the pick and the Chicago Bulls will have another opportunity to claim the pick in 2014. This is smart for the Bobcats, as it gives them the opportunity to continue drafting lottery picks up until the 2016 NBA Draft. Protecting a first-round pick guards a sub-par team from the uncertainty of where they will land in the Draft. Protecting a first-round pick is just good business.

What is most important to realize about this pick is that it is either a valuable trade commodity that the Bulls could package with players to acquire a Star/Superstar and/or it is a key building block for the future of this team via the NBA Draft.

The likely-hood of the Chicago Bulls obtaining a quality pick in 2016 is decent. We are talking about the Charlotte Bobcats. Since 2004, the Bobcats have had a total of 12 first-round selections. Any decent team... No, EVERY NBA team should be able to rebuild in 9 seasons with 12 first-round selections. The fact that the Bobcats have not even come close to doing so should increase the value of this pick.

Currently, the Bulls' roster includes one Superstar (Derrick Rose), two Stars (Joakim Noah and Carlos Boozer), a few pieces that are key to the teams future (Jimmy Butler and Marquis Teague) and a host of players that are essentially trade assets. This Draft pick will give them an opportunity to add another quality player to support Derrick Rose. Also, by the time this pick is utilized, the Bulls should have their 'Great White Hope', Nikola Mirotic on the roster. Look for the Bulls' roster to become as solid as it ever has within the next few years. #SeeRed

The NBA Draft is June 27th, 2013

#	Team	Player	H	W	P	School	C
1	*Charlotte	Ben McLemore	6-5	195	SG	Kansas	Fr.
2	Orlando	Marcus Smart	6-4	225	PG	Oklahoma State	Fr.
3	Washington	Otto Porter	6-8	205	SF	Georgetown	So.
4	New Orleans	Nerlens Noel	6-11	225	PF/C	Kentucky	Fr.
5	Phoenix	Cody Zeller	6-11	240	PF/C	Indiana	So.
6	*Detroit	Shabazz Muhammad	6-6	225	SF	UCLA	Fr.
7	Cleveland	Anthony Bennett	6-7	240	SF/PF	UNLV	Fr.
8	*Sacramento	Alex Len	7-1	250	C	Maryland	So.
9	Minnesota	Willie Cauley-St...	7-0	245	C	Kentucky	Fr.
10	*Philadelphia	Victor Oladipo	6-4	215	SG/SF	Indiana	Jr.
11	*Oklahoma Cty	CJ McCollum	6-3	190	PG/SG	Lehigh	Sr.
12	*Charlotte	Kelly Olynyk	7-0	240	PF/C	Gonzaga	Jr.
13	*Dallas	Glenn Robinson III	6-6	210	SF	Michigan	Fr.
14	Utah	Mason Plumlee	6-11	240	PF	Duke	Sr.
15	Milwaukee	Trey Burke	6-0	190	PG	Michigan	So.
16	*Phoenix	James McAdoo	6-9	230	SF/PF	North Carolina	So.
17	*Atlanta	Michael Carter-W...	6-6	185	PG	Syracuse	So.
18	Atlanta	Doug McDermott	6-7	225	SF	Creighton	Jr.
19	Boston	Dario Saric	6-10	225	SF/PF	Croatia	Intl.
20	Chicago	Myck Kabongo	6-1	180	PG	Texas	So.
21	*Utah	Rudy Gobert	7-1	230	C	France	Intl.
22	Brooklyn	Markel Brown	6-3	190	SG	Oklahoma State	Jr.
23	New York	Tim Hardaway Jr	6-6	190	SG	Michigan	Jr.
24	Indiana	Kentavious Caldw...	6-5	205	SG	Georgia	So.
25	Denver	Isaiah Austin	7-0	205	PF/C	Baylor	Fr.
26	LA Clippers	Gorgui Dieng	6-10	245	C	Louisville	Jr.
27	*Minnesota	Tony Mitchell	6-8	235	SF/PF	North Texas	So.
28	Oklahoma Cty	Archie Goodwin	6-4	198	SG	Kentucky	Fr.
29	San Antonio	Jeff Withey	7-0	235	C	Kansas	Sr.
30	*Cleveland	Lucas Nogueira	7-0	220	PF/C	Brazil	Intl.

#	Team	Player	H	W	P	School	C
31	*Oklahoma Cty	Erick Green	6-3	185	PG	Virginia Tech	Sr.
32	*Cleveland	DeShaun Thomas	6-7	225	SF/PF	Ohio State	Jr.
33	Washington	Nate Wolters	6-4	193	PG	South Dakota ...	Sr.
34	*Philadelphia	Isaiah Canaan	6-1	200	PG	Murray St.	Sr.
35	Phoenix	Lorenzo Brown	6-4	186	PG/SG	NC State	Jr.
36	Detroit	Mike Muscala	6-11	240	PF/C	Bucknell	Sr.
37	Cleveland	CJ Leslie	6-9	200	PF	NC State	Jr.
38	Sacramento	Robert Covington	6-9	230	SF	Tennessee State	Sr.
39	*Portland	Adreian Payne	6-10	240	PF/C	Michigan St.	Jr.
40	Philadelphia	Rodney Williams	6-7	200	SF	Minnesota	Sr.
41	Toronto	Cory Jefferson	6-9	235	PF	Baylor	Jr.
42	*Denver	Jamaal Franklin	6-5	205	SG/SF	San Diego St.	Jr.
43	Dallas	Patric Young	6-8	250	PF	Florida	Jr.
44	Utah	Michael Snaer	6-5	200	SG	Florida St.	Sr.
45	Milwaukee	Trevor Mbakwe	6-8	245	PF/C	Minnesota	Sr.
46	*LA Lakers	Kenny Kadji	6-11	245	PF/C	Miami	Sr.
47	*Atlanta	Ryan Kelly	6-11	230	PF	Duke	Sr.
48	Atlanta	Clint Capela	6-9	220	SF/PF	Switzerland	Intl.
49	*Portland	Pierre Jackson	5-10	185	PG	Baylor	Sr.
50	Chicago	James Ennis	6-7	210	SG/SF	Long Beach St...	Sr.
51	*Denver	Carrick Felix	6-6	196	SG/SF	Arizona St.	Sr.
52	*Phoenix	Brandon Triche	6-2	210	PG/SG	Syracuse	Sr.
53	*Washington	James Southerland	6-8	215	SF/PF	Syracuse	Sr.
54	Indiana	Seth Curry	6-2	180	PG/SG	Duke	Sr.
55	*Phoenix	Solomon Hill	6-7	229	SF	Arizona	Sr.
56	LA Clippers	Ray McCallum	6-1	190	PG	Detroit	Jr.
57	Memphis	Will Clyburn	6-7	210	SG/SF	Iowa St.	Sr.
58	*Minnesota	Nemanja Nedovic	6-3	190	PG/SG	Serbia	Intl.
59	San Antonio	Mouhammadou Jaiteh	6-10	231	PF/C	France	Intl.
60	Miami	Jordan Aboudou	6-7	210	SG/SF	France	Intl.