After a long journey to get there, where several notable veteran players were released, the Buffalo Bills are officially cap-compliant in 2024.
The team pulled its one inevitable cap-clearing tab Monday night, restructuring the massive cap hit of franchise quarterback Josh Allen into a far more manageable number to conduct offseason business.
The Bills used a simple restructure, turning the vast majority of the money owed this year to Allen into a prorated signing bonus through the last five years of his deal. Before the move, Allen’s $47.1 million cap hit accounted for a whopping 18.4 percent of the team’s salary cap in 2024. It was previously the seventh-largest cap hit in the NFL, according to Over The Cap.
For the team, having one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL and a bloated contract to match is part of life. The Bills also wanted to maximize the winning window with the quarterback while balancing when the cap went backward due to the year affected by COVID-19, leaving them in a position to have to do this the last two offseasons.
The team did the same thing with the quarterback’s contract in 2023, turning all but the veteran minimum base salary and Allen’s $500,000 workout bonus into a prorated signing bonus. But this year, they weren’t forced into the same thing.
According to ESPN’s Field Yates, the Bills will save $16.7 million on this year’s cap with the simple restructure, yielding a cap hit of $30.35 million. That means the team only restructured a little under $21 million of the nearly $29 million cash owed to Allen that was available to restructure into a prorated signing bonus. While they still restructured over 70 percent of what they could, it still meant that they had done enough work to not have to run up their credit card with Allen in 2025 and beyond. It’s a step in the right direction.
With them taking a small step forward in getting their cap in a healthier place for next offseason, Bills general manager Brandon Beane discussed if there ever would be a year that the team didn’t have to do a simple restructure on Allen’s deal.
“I think it’s getting hard just because we’ve already had to do it,” Beane said at the NFL combine. “It kind of all depends on where we end up. What guys do we extend this year? What do we add on to the books? I would love to skip a year of doing that. That would obviously help us. But, I don’t know how practical that would be.”
So far, the Bills mostly have avoided adding too much onto their 2025 cap sheet, instead using 2024 as somewhat of a mini-reset for their salary cap. In addition to Allen’s restructure, the team signed Dion Dawkins to a contract extension through 2027 and designated former cornerback Tre’Davious White as a post-June 1 release, which will push $4 million on to the 2025 ledger.
Sweet home Buffalo. 😍@DDawkins66 | #BillsMafia pic.twitter.com/Jxz925XWdW
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) March 11, 2024
The Bills signed defensive end A.J. Epensa to a two-year deal with unknown financial compensation as of Monday night. They also restructured interior offensive lineman Connor McGovern to push some cap space toward the future, on top of signing guard David Edwards, safety Taylor Rapp, quarterback Mitch Trubisky and defensive back Cam Lewis to lower-tier multi-year deals.
The Bills can now afford to look at some free agents, knowing they at least have some breathing room. Then, once the whole of White’s $10 million plus of cap savings becomes available on June 1, they can look to the second wave of free agency during spring workouts.
But without question, the Bills have been mindful of 2025 and beyond above all else. And despite some temporary pain this offseason with not a lot to spend and having to move on from players who were once staples of their program, Beane and the Bills have a good look at a potentially much cleaner cap sheet a year from now.
(Photo of Josh Allen: Perry Knotts / Getty Images)
