Does Tony Romo restructure pave the way for Adrian Peterson?

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo has agreed to restructure his contract to give the team more salary cap space, and already there has been speculation about Romo’s new deal freeing up room to acquire Adrian Peterson.

Pro Football Talk reports that Romo’s restructure has created an additional $12.8 million in cap space for the 2015 season. His base salary for next season will be just $1 million, with roughly $16 million being converted to a signing bonus. Romo isn’t taking less money — the Cowboys will simply be in worse shape toward the end of his deal.

Coincidentally or not, Peterson is set to count $12.75 million against the cap in 2015. While Peterson’s hefty contract has likely been one reason teams are reportedly unwilling to give up a high draft pick to trade for him, there has been speculation that AP would restructure his deal if he was dealt to one of a handful of teams.

To make matters more interesting, Romo said during a radio interview on Tuesday that he was willing to take a pay cut to keep DeMarco Murray. A report from earlier this week also indicated that Jerry Jones was unwilling to go beyond a certain number to keep Murray because he wanted to make sure the Cowboys had enough money left over if an unusual opportunity presented itself to sign a Hall of Fame-caliber player.

Most of this is speculation, but it sure seems like the Cowboys are getting all of their ducks in a row. We all know Darren McFadden is not going to be the feature back in Dallas. We also know Peterson may have admitted something to Jones at one point that makes all of this even more interesting. Time will tell.