Just last week, Stephen Jones said the Cowboys are looking to pursue a long-term contract extension with Tony Romo, who is entering the final year of a contract that will pay him a base salary of $11.5 million and will count $16.8 million against the cap.

"Tony is a key piece of what we're about going forward," Jones said Tuesday. "We're certainly going to be looking at his situation (in) time.

"We've historically (extended contracts) with quarterbacks for the Dallas Cowboys ahead of time. We did it with Troy (Aikman) and we certainly want to look at that with Tony so we can all move forward in terms of how we want to play around our salary cap with our team. Tony is the key piece in terms of how your cap is represented."

Quoting a source, Calvin Watkins of ESPNDallas wrote yesterday that talks about an extension haven't started yet. There had apparently been some preliminary discussions with Romo's agent early in the season, but those talks were shelved to prevent them from becoming too much of an issue during the regular season.

The talks didn't become an issue then, but it looks like they could become an issue now. Not because the negotiations are expected to be overly difficult, but because the Cowboys are working against a deadline. All NFL teams have to get under the salary cap by March 12, and a contract extension in the next three weeks could cut Romo's $16.8 million cap hit roughly in half.

There's always the option of letting Romo play out his contract and taking the cap hit, but according to Ed Werder, that's not how Jerry Jones likes to play things.

Nothing yet between Tony Romo and Cowboys. But no way Jerry makes QB uncomfortable by playing out deal. That would make JJ uncomfortable

— Ed Werder (@Edwerderespn) February 17, 2013

Then again, Jones did promise to make things uncomfortable ...