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Two Bills Free Agency Myths

Sometimes things are said so often that falsehoods get established as fact. I want to take a couple of moments to dispel two things that are untrue and provable yet Bills fans repeat over and over.

1. The Bills spending in free agency got them in cap trouble.

In the ten years prior to McBeane taking over (2007-2016) the Bills made just five big ticket multi-year signings. Langston Walker, Derrick Dockery, Mario Williams, Mark Anderson, Charles Clay. That's it. There were a couple of mid-level deals like Corey Graham and Chris Williams. Percy Harvin drew a lot of attention, but his contract was a mid-level one year deal which the Bills quickly moved on from.

In the Whaley era, the Bills cap money went primarily to retaining their own players.

Draft picks:

Marcel Dareus

Cordy Glenn

Stephon Gilmore (5th year option 11 million dollars)

Eric Wood

Kyle Williams

Aaron Williams

Initial cheap FAs/trades re-signed.

Jerry Hughes

Tyrod Taylor

Richie Icognito

Trade and re-structure:

LeSean McCoy

In 2016, Whaley's last year in full command, the only Bills free agents with notable cap hits were Charles Clay (6 million) and Corey Graham (4.775 million). Mario Williams cost 7 million in dead money. That's all. Take a look at past Bills off-seasons and you will find them almost always losing more than they gained in free agency. Signing other team's free agents has had minimal impact on the Bills cap position.

2. The Bills were in cap hell

The Bills have not been in cap trouble during the McBeane era. Full stop.

2017 was a little tight but Buffalo still had the money to pick up the option on Tyrod Taylor, while re-signing Ryan Groy and Lorenzo Alexander. In free agency that year, they added Hyde, Poyer, DiMarco, Hauschka, Ducasse, Shareece Wright, Anquan Boldin (who retired before playing) and a few other small contracts. Following the Dareus trade mid-season, Buffalo finished with 11 million dollars in cap room still free. They did let quality free agents leave in Gilmore, Woods, Goodwin, and Zach Brown , but as these four only counted for a combined 20 million against the cap for their new teams in 2017, lack of cap space was not keeping the Bills from re-sgning any of these players.

In 2018 the Bills had plenty of cap space. Here's how they chose to spend it:

Eric Wood (10.4 million). Re-signed heavily guaranteed contract and retired before playing a down due to injury. No blame, besides guaranteeing an older player's second year for injury. Bad luck, but still ate a huge chunk of cap.

Kelvin Benjamin (Trade - 8.5 million hit in 2018)

Tyrod Taylor (6 million dollar bonus). Tyrod's bonus cost six million dollars, but improved his trade value.

This is nearly 25 million just spent between Wood, Benjamin, and the Tyrod bonus.

Following these moves, the Bills spent a decent amount in free agency, including four players with an APY of at least 5 million dollars.

Star Lotulelei 5 year/50 million - 6.7 million cap hit.

Trent Murphy 3/21 - 4.9 million cap.

Vontae Davis 1/5 - 2 million cap.

A.J. McCarron 2/10 - 2.1 million cap.

Chris Ivory 2/5.5 million - 2.4 million cap

Russell Bodine - 2/5 million - 2.0 million cap

Rafael Bush 2/3.5 - 1.7 million cap

Julian Stanford 2/3 - 1.5 million cap

Corey Coleman - The Bills traded for Coleman then ate 3.0 million dollars when they cut him shortly after.

In summary -

The Bills paid roughly 24.9 million for Wood, Benjamin, and Taylor.

They added at least 23.3 million in new contracts (this number would have been higher had McCarron and Davis stayed on the team).

The Bills finished around 8 million under the cap.

So, when you add it all up and factor in veteran cuts/trades (like Kerley, Newhouse, Gaines, and rookie signings, the Bills had between 60-65 million dollars available heading in 2018.

60-65 million dollars is nowhere close to cap hell. We can debate how it was spent, but to argue they were somehow in cap trouble is simply not true.

Just another great fan opinion shared on the pages of BuffaloRumblings.com.