Make no mistake about it: the Buffalo Bills did not release punter Brian Moorman because of financial implications.
As Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk pointed out via Twitter when the news broke earlier this afternoon, Moorman will still make the balance of his $1.425 million base salary this year despite getting released. That means that for the next 14 weeks, the Bills will be sending Moorman a check for roughly $83,820 - and if he is signed by another team at any point, he'll collect a paycheck from his new employer on top of what the Bills will still be paying him.
Finances, then, were a complete non-factor in the Bills' decision to release Moorman after a slow start to the season. The chief reason, then, was performance: Moorman currently ranks 30th in the NFL in net punting average (32.7 yards), and he'd only knocked two in 15 punts out inside the 20-yard line this season. The Bills will be counting on rookie Shawn Powell to improve both figures from this point forward.