At some point this week, the Buffalo Bills were able to restructure defensive end Mario Addison’s contract for the 2021 season, freeing up some cap space to allow them to sign right tackle Daryl Williams and linebacker Matt Milano to long-term deals. That report comes from NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, who didn’t go into specifics.
Like center Mitch Morse and defensive tackle Vernon Butler, this restructure is a pay cut according to Rapoport, who adds that some of the time, players can make back the pay cut in incentives.
Addison signed a three-year, $30 million contract a year ago and was no doubt overpaid for his production in 2020. He was only set to make $6.625 million in base salary plus had an upcoming $800,000 roster bonus later this month and a $250,000 offseason workout bonus. His compensation dropping a few million makes his two-year compensation much more palatable.
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 were close to $20 million in cap space to re-sign free agents and add new players to their roster. Adding a couple million would give them $22 million in total, but they just allocated roughly $7 million for LB Matt Milano and an unknown amount to RT Daryl Williams, who signed a three-year, $28 million deal on Friday.