First-year Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane admitted he inherited a messy salary cap situation when he took over as GM before the 2017 season. Even after making moves designed to get the Bills into a better position against the cap, Beane told WGR 550 in Buffalo that the Bills still have work to do to resolve their salary cap woes.
“We’re in better position than they were a year before,” said Beane last week. “But we’re not out of the woods. We’re still working on it. We’re still massaging it. With some of the moves we made, we still have to eat some dead money. But it’s heading the right direction. 2018 was better than 2017. I foresee 2019 being a little rosier than 2018.”
As of today, the team has about $31.4 million in salary cap space, according to Spotrac.com. This number puts them just below the league average of $37.4 million.
According to ESPN Stats & Info, the Bills boast approximately $36 million in salary cap space, but the Bills will carry $18.72 million in dead money into the upcoming league year, the highest figure among the 32 NFL franchises. This bloated figure is mostly due to the in-season trade of defensive tackle Marcell Dareus, who carries a $14.2 million dead money charge against Buffalo’s cap figure for 2018.
This offseason, more daunting decisions face Beane and the rest of the Bills’ brass when it comes to figuring out the salary cap situation. Left tackle Cordy Glenn and his $14.45 million salary cap hit for 2018 could potentially be viewed as an expendable contract thanks to the solid rookie season put forth by Dion Dawkins.
At the quarterback position, much-maligned signal caller Tyrod Taylor could be released before March 17 (the third day of the league year) in a move that would save the Bills over $9 million. If the team cuts Taylor and doesn’t spend that amount (or more) of money on a viable veteran quarterback (think Kirk Cousins or Alex Smith), the team will have some flexibility to spend in free agency.
This flexibility is currently limited by Buffalo possessing four picks in the first two rounds of the NFL draft, but if Beane, who has shown a tendency to wheel and deal, packages a few or all of these draft picks to climb the draft board and select that long-awaited franchise quarterback, more cap space would become available for free agents.
If the team uses all four high draft picks instead of trading, Buffalo will benefit by relying on talented players on cheap contracts for the next four or five years, a move that would pay dividends if Beane can succeed in the draft.
“We’ve got some dead money and we’re still working through that and that happens when you have some of the deals we did with bigger contracts like Marcell [Dareus],” said Beane. “But we want to get away from that because the more money we have on the field, the better off we’re going to be actually paying the players who are on the field.”