MOBILE, Ala. - Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is often in rare form, but he took it to an unrecognizable level Tuesday at Senior Bowl practices when addressing quarterback Tony Romo's future.

Jones said that with all the speculation about where Romo could play next season, it's time to take a step back and not add to the buzz.

Even Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones played along with his father.

Romo, the Cowboys' franchise quarterback for the better part of a decade, faces an uncertain offseason. In all likelihood, Romo won't play for the Cowboys again because Dak Prescott has established himself as the starting quarterback after a standout rookie season and Romo will count almost $25 million against the salary cap in 2017.

That's a lot of money tied up for a backup quarterback.

"I'm not going to get into that at all - whether we've talked or not," Jerry Jones said of Romo. "We're at a juncture now that we need to just cool it in our public conversations about what we're going to be doing or not doing there with Tony."

Later Tuesday evening, Stephen Jones was asked about Romo's future.

"Wrong guy, next. That's Jerry," Stephen Jones said, referring questions about Romo to his father. "I don't have any comment.

Romo played only six snaps last season and cost the Cowboys $20.8 million in salary cap space. Dallas can't repeat that in 2017 with a defense that needs a boost.

It will cost the Cowboys $19.6 million to sever ties with Romo, regardless of whether he's traded or released. If the Cowboys designate Romo as a June 1 cut, they can split the debt over two seasons ($10.7 million on the 2017 cap and $8.9 million the following year).

The Cowboys can actually gain $5.1 million in cap space with Romo's departure.

Speculation on which team Romo could eventually land on has been a hot topic the past few weeks. That was the case earlier this week when a picture surfaced of Romo recently with Denver Broncos general manager John Elway in Washington D.C.

Does Jerry Jones have a good idea of what Romo wants to do?

"Well, I've always had a good feeling that I communicated well and that we as an organization communicated well with Tony," Jerry Jones said.

But Jerry Jones isn't sharing his thoughts this time.

Backup options

Last offseason, the Cowboys placed an emphasis on finally finding a quality backup quarterback to play behind Romo. Much of their pre-draft evaluation was on quarterbacks.

They eventually drafted Prescott late in the fourth round after swinging and missing on trades to get in position to select Paxton Lynch and Connor Cook.

This offseason, Romo's future with the team is in doubt and the other two quarterbacks on the roster -- Mark Sanchez and Kellen Moore -- will be unrestricted free agents. So, are the Cowboys again placing an emphasis this offseason on finding a backup quarterback?

"Not as much as we put in last year because we actually thought we were getting our backup quarterback when we got Dak, but we were pushing hard," Jones said. "We knew we had Romo, but we were pushing hard looking at those quarterbacks with an eye to the future. That won't quite be the emphasis this year."

Does Jones believe the Cowboys have their backup quarterback for 2017 already on their roster?

"I think we could, but that's not a given, but it won't quite have the emphasis it had last year," Jones said. "We really felt like it was time to look at the future quarterback and that dictated some of our strategy by the time we got down to the draft, so much for strategy, we never knew it would turn out the way it's turned out, thank goodness."