re: What should the Cowboys do?

Depends on what you want.

If you want to make money, continue down the Jerrah Jones way.

If you want to contend, blow it up.

You aren't going to move Romo coming off a back surgery, and Ware's contract is going to limit the return you get in trade. I can't sell those guys, unless I get at least .80 cents back on the dollar.

Short term, you have to get your cap situation under control. Cowboys homers are depending on finding more cap relief from Romo, Carr, and Ware-- those guys have already bought breathing room for the salary cap through restructures, and aren't getting any younger. Ware has talked about it, but there is a limit to what he can do-- he's not going to pay for a super bargain, and whatever the number is, it'll still be $4 million lower than his actual salary counting against the cap. Say he drops his base from $12M to $8M (which I think strains plausibility)-- it still leaves him a cap number of $12M for 2014, and probably kicks some salary issues down the road. If you fiddle with voidable years for Carr, and add incentives to the last years of the Ware deal, you might find $15 million here. I just don't see Romo buying in coming off a back injury, so there's a missed opportunity for his similar incentive-free back end years, that you might have renegotiated before he got hurt..

You can designate Miles Austin for release after June 1, and save $5.5 mil. Unfortunately, with a surgically repaired Romo, you are faced with either trimming away the roughly $4 mil in backup QB salaries and replacing it with a veteran minimum and a rookie, or biting that financial bullet. I'd personally burn it down, and bring in two minimum guys. YMMV.

On the upside, you get back the cap penalty you'e been paying-- but you still have to come up with another $8 millionish to just get back to the cap, assuming the restructurings and replacements go without a single hitch.

That's before worrying about Dez and Tyron Smith coming due in 2014 for big new deals, as they come off of their rookie contracts. You must, must, must not do what the Cowboys have been doing, in terms of cap loading, if you want to not have the same problem down the road.

Release Doug Free. Hurts short term, but you are clear $3.5 mil, with no dead money to worry about down the road. Stay completely free of free agency, beyond veteran minimums and rookies. 2014 is a lost year, and 2015 is likely as lost. If you can get a reasonable return on an overpriced part, do it....but I can't see anyone that jumps off the page as good trade bait.