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Cowboys restructure Tony Romo's deal; could it pave way for Adrian Peterson?

Cowboys restructure Tony Romo's deal; could it pave way for Adrian Peterson?

The Dallas Cowboys are masters at kicking the financial can down the proverbial road, restructuring bloated deals they signed their players to once it becomes obvious their talent and value don't appear to be in sync.

That doesn't appear to be what's happening here.

Pro Football Talk is reporting that the Cowboys and quarterback Tony Romo have restructured his deal in a move that clears up $12.8 million in salary-cap space this year. That's a lot of, um, space. Why the move now, after all the top free agents — including their own DeMarco Murray — have landed new homes?

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As PFT floats, it might not be coincidence that disgruntled Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson is set to earn a base salary of $12.75 million this coming season.

Hmm.

We might add that Peterson and Jerry Jones once had a conversation that skirted the lines of tampering, a conversation in which Peterson reportedly told Jones he wanted to retire a Cowboy. This is, after all, a kid who grew up a Cowboys fans, went to their games (and in their locker room) as a high-school player in Texas and who wants no part of his current team.

Interesting stuff, even if the Vikings to date have shown no interest in giving Peterson up. A motivated trade partner might change their minds. Jones, if nothing else, is a deal maker.

So many layers here ...

First, would Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer — a former Cowboys assistant for several years — sign off on a Peterson trade to his old team, when Zimmer has been among the more ardent Peterson supporters and is viewed as perhaps the one man who could covince him to stay in Minnesota?

The Cowboys and Vikings do not play next season, which should ease the Vikings' minds a bit on possibly swinging a deal. But the Cowboys do play the Philadelphia Eagles twice — and that's the team that signed Murray to a huge contract.

Romo said on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas the other day (via ESPN.com) that he would have been willing to rework his deal for the Cowboys to keep Murray before he left. But perhaps Jones was not willing — and maybe Peterson has been the apple of the owner's eye all along.

Fascinating stuff if you're the dot-connecting type.

Now, the Cowboys have been doing their due draft dilligence on the talented crop of running backs available and might end up deciding they want to go the younger, cheaper route. Perhaps clearing up this Romo money would lead to something else not Peterson-related, such as signing Dez Bryant to a long-term deal. That probably needs to happen.

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But what if the Cowboys could find a way to land AP? Oh my.

There's also the Peterson-Greg Hardy angle. Remember, these two men were at the center (along with Ray Rice) of the NFL's domestic-violence black eye last season, with each man serving time on the commissioner's exemption list for the accusations against them in 2014 in separate cases. Hardy's was dismissed in court, although he still is expected to face NFL discipline, but Peterson settled in his case and was suspended without pay for the duration of last season in mid-November.

The story for now is Romo redoing his deal, but this might just be the first domino. If the Cowboys make this happen and land Peterson, the offseason will have gotten that much more interesting.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!