Tony Romo says DeMarco Murray asked him to a take a pay cut on his $17 million salary before leaving the Cowboys
Romo was on the Dallas' 105.3 The Fan on Tuesday and said he was open to taking a pay cut or restructuring his deal when Murray approached him.
On Wednesday afternoon, it was announced that Romo, who had a base salary of $17 million for 2015, restructured his contract.
Romo told Ben and Skin of 105.3, "DeMarco ended up asking me, 'Why don't you take a pay cut?' I said, 'I will. I would take a pay cut to go do this.' I was like, 'They're going to restructure me.' That's the same thing in some ways, just for the salary cap purposes. He was like, 'OK, now we're back to being friends, again.' I would take $5 million less if meant getting him back."
Romo added, "It was just funny how he was literally worried about that part of it for a week. I'm like, 'That's not the reason.' I'm like, 'Obviously I'll restructure. I would even take a pay cut.' He was like, 'OK, we can be friends again.' It's amazing what you think about in those moments."
Romo also said he was sad to see Murray go, but that he deserved the opportunity to get a larger contract from another team.
Murray ended up taking a five-year, $42 million contract from the Eagles, with $18 million of it guaranteed. The Cowboys' offer was reportedly four years, $24 million.
Early in 2015, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said it would be tricky to re-sign both Dez Bryant and Murray. He said, "Is it financially reasonable? No. Is it possible? Yes. But if you just looked at it from dollars and cents, it probably doesn't look reasonable."
The Cowboys ended up using the $12.8 million franchise tag on Bryant this offseason.
According to Darin Gantt of ProFootball Talk, Romo's restructure doesn't include a pay cut. Instead, there will be additional $3.2 million charges tacked onto the remaining years of Romo's contract as a result of turning Romo's base salary into a signing bonus. Yahoo's Rand Getlin reports that the restructure creates nearly $13 million in cap space this year for the Cowboys.