There are several ways. They could sign
Dez Bryant to a long-term deal so he doesn't count $12.823 million against the cap on the franchise tag but that does not appear likely at this time. They could gain $8 million in space by designating
Brandon Carr a post-June 1 cut, but then they would need a cornerback.
The easiest and most likely way is to restructure the contract of quarterback
Tony Romo. The question is when they do it.
As the Cowboys mapped out their offseason plan, they intended to re-work Romo's contract all along, but instead of taking a small chunk of the quarterback's $17 million base salary to avoid larger cap figures in the future, they will likely have to re-do the full amount.
The Cowboys can create about $12.8 million in cap space, but turning $16 million of Romo's base salary into signing bonus, which would trim his salary-cap figure from $27.773 million to $14.973 million.