What an NFL offseason it has been in the NFC East so far.

The Dallas Cowboys remain the favorites following their fantastic 12-4 season last year. Unfortunately for them, they will not have the services of DeMarco Murray after he left in free agency to the Philadelphia Eagles.

Recently, quarterback Tony Romo and general manager Jerry Jones agreed to restructure the 34-year-old quarterbacks contract. That said contract change will save the Cowboys at least $12.8 million in salary cap space. Romo is obviously a great quarterback, who almost won the Most Valuable Player Award last season, but he knows his time at potentially winning a Super Bowl is becoming more limited with his age.

According to multiple league reports, by Romo restructuring his contract, that could pave the way for a possible trade with the Minnesota Vikings for running back Adrian Peterson.

Murray chose to leave the Cowboys after they declined to give him a new contract with more than $13 million guaranteed. The Philadelphia Eagles quickly swooped in and signed Murray for $20 million in guaranteed money after they traded LeSean McCoy to the Buffalo Bills. Many people still find that move as a head-scratcher considering McCoy is one of the best running backs in the NFL today.

Peterson has shown displeasure with the Vikings front office on several occasions. Despite the Vikings giving him a huge contract, Peterson's agent has still asked for trade opportunities in the past. The issue with trading for Peterson is money and age. Peterson has three years remaining on his contract that will count $47.4 million against the cap. Peterson is also 30 years old, and we all know what happens to most running backs when they hit 30.

Romo recently said that he was willing to restructure his contract in order to keep Murray on the roster for next season. Which begs the question -- why did Romo restructure his contract now after Murray left in free agency? Do the Cowboys have their eyes on another running back target?

Signing Peterson would be very costly, but it's hard to argue with his results on the field. Since entering the NFL in 2007, Peterson leads all backs with 10,190 rushing yards and 86 rushing touchdowns. Unfortunately for Peterson, he has never really had a lot of success with the Vikings outside of 2009 when Brett Favre led the team to NFC Championship game. If Peterson wants to join the Cowboys, he would most likely have to take a pay cut so the Cowboys can continue to improve their defense.

For the Vikings, they should welcome all traders. As good as Peterson is, one could argue it's just time to move on from this relationship. The Vikings honestly haven't benefited much in the win column from having Peterson on their roster. The Vikings haven't even won the NFC North since 2009. By trading away Peterson, they would save immense salary cap space for the future.

The Vikings and Cowboys know firsthand about trading a high quality running back for big value. In 1989, the Cowboys traded Herschel Walker to the Vikings in exchange for eight draft picks and five players. It's extremely unlikely the Vikings would ever get that talent in return these days, but it's still the same principal. Now the shoe is on the other foot, and it's the Vikings who have the chance to get value back.

If the Cowboys don't want to trade for Peterson, they do have free agent options. Knowshon Moreno, Ray Rice and Chris Johnson are all NFL free agents, and this upcoming draft has a lot of talented running backs in it.

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