Despite working diligently to get under the cap space and make themselves available for being contenders in the free agency market, the Dallas Cowboys gave Anthony Spencer the franchise tag and have yet to restructure Tony Romo’s contract, which seems to be the key to their whole salary cap situation in 2013.

After reworking around 11 contracts, the Dallas Cowboys managed to get under the salary cap after being over it by $20 million when the off-season began. Then, they go ahead and give Anthony Spencer a $10.6 million franchise tender, putting them $6.8 million over the cap, and in desperate need to give Tony Romo a new deal so they go right back under again.

But, despite what seems clear to everyone, the Cowboys and Romo aren’t really talking extension. It seems that they might be going in a direction of looking for Romo to prove his worth in 2013, just like the Ravens tried with Joe Flacco last season, ending up with the Super Bowl. But that seems to be the wrong way to look at the situation.

The Cowboys don’t always do things that seem logical – Jerry Jones doesn’t always look at things in the cold, business view like many other GM and owners do. Maybe that’s why the Cowboys have been mostly unsuccessful for such a long time, but it doesn’t change the fact that this is the current situation with the Cowboys. Flacco didn’t play much better than he usually does in 2012, he simply won a game or two more in the postseason, after proving he’s a winner in previous years.

The Cowboys probably shouldn’t have given Anthony Spencer so much money; they probably shouldn’t have kept Jay Ratliff on the team without even restructuring a deal, but they seem to hang on to players other teams might have released by now. And still, despite Tony Romo willing to open up his deal to make more money in the future and more importantly, secure his place as the team’s franchise quarterback for the next half-decade, the Cowboys don’t look like they’re in a real hurry to get a deal done. They should be, or they’ll either let him get away from them, or pay through their noses a year from now.

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