Is Tony Romo the integral part of the Dallas Cowboys’ game plan to returning to the Super Bowl?

The franchise’s executive vice president Stephen Jones says the Cowboys believe that to be the case; and the team wants to sign the 32-year-old Mexican-American quarterback to a long-term contract.

“Tony is a key piece of what we’re about going forward,” said Jones. “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.”

Romo, who is currently in the last year of his contract, is scheduled to earn a base salary of $11.5 million in 2013. His salary cap figure is a team-high $16.8 million.

The Cowboys, like all NFL teams, have until March 12 to get under the expected $121 million cap. The Cowboys are roughly $20 million over that figure, so lowering Romo’s cap number by extending his contract is an important part of that process.

“I don’t feel pressed,” said Jones. “I don’t think we’ve ever felt pressed with Tony. He’s been a great partner. As I said, your quarterback, even when you have a good one and we’re certainly lucky to have one of the best, is going to represent a good piece of your salary cap. How you manage that is important. He understands that and we do, too.”

Jones wouldn’t get into specifics about how much the team wants to pay, but Romo could command a three- to five-year deal with an average salary of at least $12 million, slightly more than what he received in his last contract.