The Buffalo Bills restructured the contract of defensive end Mario Addison earlier this month. While we thought it was a move simply meant to save cap space in the COVID-shrunk cap year of 2021, it had another element. According to Matthew Fairburn of The Athletic, the restructure voids the final year of Addison’s deal in 2022.
Addison will save the Bills $2 million by taking a pay cut. We reported on those details earlier.
The two sides also changed the structure of the deal. He gets a roster bonus of $1.9 million up front instead of the originally scheduled $800,000. His base salary dropped by $3.1 million as a result; $2 million to the pay cut and $1.1 million as a new roster bonus. Also, the team guaranteed $3 million of his salary. He’ll be back this season for sure.
The original contract had Addison making more than $8 million in new cash in 2022. Now that the year is voided, he’ll have a $2 million dead-cap hit. That is the remaining pro-rated money from his $6 million signing bonus from 2020.
The Bills now have a looming 2022 hole at defensive end. Jerry Hughes also has one year remaining on his deal.