The Buffalo Bills on Wednesday restructured defensive tackle Vernon Butler’s contract, saving some salary cap space in the same way they did with center Mitch Morse on Tuesday. Morse received a $3 million pay cut but the majority of the remainder salary for 2021 was fully guaranteed.
Butler was set to make $5.5 million in base salary plus a $1 million roster bonus in 2021 (view the full contract breakdown here). He can also earn $750,000 for reaching a certain number of sacks and a per-game roster bonus of $250,000. We don’t have word yet how much of a haircut Butler took on his salary, but we can assume it’s at least a couple million dollars.
The team also released WR John Brown and DE Quinton Jefferson to save $14.4 million in salary cap space for 2021. Add the $3 million from Mitch Morse and the money from Butler’s pay cut, and the Bills are close to $20 million in cap space to re-sign free agents and add new players to their roster. And it’s likely they aren’t done trimming just yet.