Buffalo Bills' Tyler Thigpen Takes $1 Million Pay Cut, Per Report

Here's a wrinkle to the ongoing Buffalo Bills backup quarterback saga that we didn't see coming: ESPN's Adam Schefter reports that Tyler Thigpen took a $1 million pay cut before the Bills kept him on the 53-man active roster on Friday evening.

When it became clear that Tarvaris Jackson was not going to be ready to assume backup quarterback duties in the early portions of the regular season, fans fretted over the fact that the Bills would be guaranteeing Thigpen $2.5 million to perform a duty perhaps only for a few weeks. Instead, that number is now $1.5 million - less than Jackson's $1.75 million base salary for the year.

The other, more minor implication here: since Thigpen's salary is now more manageable, it throws into question whether Jackson will earn an assumed extra $250,000 for being active for six weeks. If the Bills deem Thigpen worthy of remaining the backup under his revised salary, it's conceivable that Jackson could remain the third quarterback for the bulk of the season, saving them team another quarter of a million dollars.

It's been assumed since Friday night that Thigpen would only be on the roster until Jackson was ready to be the primary backup. That may still be the case, but the Bills are coming out $1 million ahead of where we thought they were nonetheless.