Let’s talk about how extending some contracts will allow the Bills to clear cap space. Paying people extra money to create cap space may sound paradoxical, but allow me to explain.
A player who is nearing the end of their contract typically earns a high basic wage. An NFL team can still award a player a large sum of money in a calendar year by taking players with such base salary and converting them to a signing bonus that can be prorated over five years. This allows the team to stretch out the cap hit over several years. The traditional restructuring won’t apply if they’re nearing the end of their contract because they won’t have any more years to use. The sum of those years plus the extension is
With two years remaining on his contract, White is the only individual on this list. Almost thirty years old and fresh off two leg injuries is probably not the ideal time to do it. He still has one year left on his contract until 2024, so they can wait until after that.
I believe Poyer can be eliminated as well. I wouldn’t be interested in an extension until after the 2024 season because he turns 33 before the season begins. Similar to what they did with Micah Hyde in the past, he might be a contender to add one or two vacant years to reduce his budget hit this season.
Moreover, based on performance, I’m going to mark Hines and Harty as eliminated. I really don’t want to give either of them any more money. Instead, I believe they should both be considered for compensation reductions.
It’s not like a Neal extension will save up much cap money. Since his base pay is $2 million, it would only be necessary to reduce it to the league minimum by $800k. Merely a three-year prolongation would only generate $600,000.
Finishing this one in the coming months seems like a no-brainer. The main worry throughout his rookie deal was his health, but he has shown that he is healthy and has played his heart out. They rely a lot on him because he is in the prime of his career and will only be 28 when his contract expires.
Johnson is eligible for a wage raise after agreeing to a three-year, $24 million contract in 2021. Since there aren’t many slot cornerbacks that play more than 90% of their team’s snaps, I’m not sure how high this contract may go. For example, even increasing his cash in 2024 to $15 million over five years would reduce his 2024 cap hit by at least $3 million. The most challenging aspect is determining the value, which I predict will be in the range of $12 million to $14 million per season.
In 2024, Dawkins will make a base salary of $9.3 million. They can pay out the remaining income over the course of five years, clearing $6.4 million, if they reduce that to the stipulated minimum of $1.2 million. If a new 2025 salary with an option bonus were guaranteed, they might feel a lot of comfort. Alternatively, they may arrange it so that they would pay him more in the current year while still saving them cap space in 2024. The main question is how long they wish to dedicate themselves to the 30-year-old left-side anchor.
The Bills could offer Douglas a nice two-year agreement to clear cap space and see him through his 32nd season, but it’s unclear if they want to wait until he’s finished with the summer before offering him an extension. They would receive an additional $5 million on top of his $2 million roster bonus if they reduced his base pay to the veteran minimum. Prorating that $7 million would net $5.6 million if no further funding is given to him. I would advise adding a few more years to the contract, which might reduce the amount of cap savings because they would have to increase the signing bonus. In the $3–$5 million range, they would still save a substantial amount of room.