In order to get Terence Newman and Marion Barber signed to these long-term extensions, the Cowboys had to create some salary-cap room so they went to Tony Romo.

The quarterback agreed to restructure his contract, but it didn't cost him a penny. In fact, it put some money in his pocket now instead of later. The Cowboys turned Romo's $6.5 million base salary into signing bonus, dropping the 2008 base salary to $605,000.

Instead of carrying a cap figure of $8.416 million this year, Romo's new cap number is almost $3.5 million, hence a saving of about $5 million and enough room to get Newman and Barber done and then some when added to the roughly $3.5 million they already had.