Every team relies on rookie deals and cheaper veterans to round out their roster. When they overperform, the team overperforms. The Buffalo Bills are no exception and during the 2019 season they had such a solid group of overperforming players, we had to expand our normal top-ten list.
Here are the 2019 honorable mentions for the Bang for the Dollar Bills series, in order of their cap hit:
RB Frank Gore
$2 million
Gore barely misses out on the top ten as the 29th-highest-paid running back in the NFL. He had a good year, despite what you might have heard, where he ran for 599 yards to finish 32nd among RBs.
OT Cody Ford
$1.365 million
Ford couldn’t lock down his job, so he misses the main list. He played in 16 games, making 15 starts. He didn’t play any offensive snaps against Washington in November but after platooning with Ty Nsekhe, he replaced the veteran when he went down for injury.
CB Taron Johnson
$731,517
Johnson makes the main list for sure if he stays healthy, but that’s been the problem throughout his career. He made seven starts with 12 total games played as the slot cornerback, but he missed four games due to injury. He’s very good in that role, and made 50 tackles while defending five passes.
WR Duke Williams
$378,534
Williams didn’t get a ton of opportunity during the regular season, notching 12 catches for 166 yards and one TD. They force-fed him the ball in the playoffs, but he only caught four of the ten targets including one in the end zone at the end of the first half. Still, at that cap hit, he outperformed Andre Roberts ($2.6 million cap hit) in every offensive category.