Every NFL team has contracts they wish they could ditch or players they hoped would live up to the big money handed them in free agency. Most of the time, that's not how it worked. Several Buffalo Bills provided a low return on their investment during the 2016 season.
The numbers we use have been calculated and assembled by Spotrac.com, and is the player's total salary cap figure for 2016. That includes prorated portions of signing bonuses, salary, and any other bonuses paid to give the most complete picture of total payments.
Number 2 - K Dan Carpenter ($2.6 million cap hit)
Dan Carpenter had a great season in his first year with the Bills and even though the team had drafted and subsequently placed Dustin Hopkins on injured reserve, they rewarded him with a big contract extension. He has not lived up to that new contract.
Ranking 31st in field goal percentage (76%) and 27th in extra point percentage (89%) among players with ten or more attempts, Carpenter wasn’t just a bad value, he was bad period. He was consistent on kicks under 40 yards but anything longer than that was an adventure.
He was routinely outkicked by guys making a quarter of his salary cap hit, including Hopkins who was 81% from the field and 89% on extra points in Washington while counting just $600,000 against the cap. It is likely Carpenter won’t see his $2 million base salary in 2017.