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The Buffalo Bills and center Mitch Morse have agreed to a salary restructure that saves the club approximately $2 million on the 2020 salary cap. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport was first with the report.
Morse, 29, had been scheduled to count $10,343,750 against the salary cap this year. If Rapoport’s numbers are correct, then Morse’s cap hit should come in closer to $8.3 million instead. While that doesn’t seem like much, given the cap crunch that most teams find themselves in this year, every dollar counts.
We posed a scenario last week whereby the Bills could restructure Morse’s contract and save $3 million on this year’s cap while increasing his 2022 dead cap charge to $6 million. We said that scenario wasn’t likely, and it wasn’t, as the Bills didn’t convert his salary to signing bonus. General manager Brandon Beane and Morse himself instead agreed to what amounts to a straight pay cut.
Morse’s $10.3 million cap hit was slated to be the fifth-highest in the league this year at center. If the restructured cap number Rapoport reported is accurate, Morse’s cap hit drops the tenth-highest in the NFL this season.
Morse will enter his third season with the Bills as their starting center. He’s played in 30 of a possible 32 regular season games with Buffalo, and he’s also suited up for all four of the Bills’ playoff contests over the last two years.
Morse took a straight pay cut, reducing his base salary by $2.9 million from $7.025 million to $4.125 million In exchange, Buffalo fully guaranteed $3.15 million of his salary.