Dallas Cowboys still $7 million over salary cap

The Dallas Cowboys have plenty of work to do on Monday, as Jerry Jones' team needs to get under the salary cap by Tuesday.

By JP Starkey Mar 11, 2013, 9:32am EDT

The Dallas Cowboys will be busy on Monday. After using the franchise tag on Anthony Spencer for the second consecutive season, the Cowboys find themselves $7 million over the salary cap -- and that number must come down prior to Tuesday, when the new league year begins.

The Cowboys are expected to restructure multiple contracts on Monday, according to the Dallas Morning News' David Moore. Candidates to restructure include Jay Ratliff, Orlando Scandrick, Dan Connor, Kyle Orton, Nate Livings and Mackenzy Bernadeau. Per Moore, each of those players have already been approached about restructuring.

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Dallas already saved cap space for 2013 by restructuring the contracts of DeMarcus Ware, Jason Witten, Miles Austin, Brandon Carr and Ryan Cook.

Franchising Spencer cost the Cowboys over $10 million in 2013, and leaves the Cowboys still struggling to find cap space this offseason.

It had been believed that the Cowboys would aim to extend quarterback Tony Romo before free agency opens -- a move that could save money on the 2013 cap, as Romo has a cap figure of nearly $17 million for 2013. There's no indication that the Cowboys and Romo will reach an agreement in the next day, however.