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The Buffalo Bills had quite a few solid salary cap values last season. General manager Brandon Beane did a great job populating his roster with players who perfectly fit their roles. Of course, there were a few misses in terms of value, and we’ll examine those beginning next week. However, today is not that day.
Today, we discuss the best-value player on the 2020 Buffalo Bills—a buy-low candidate who took his “prove-it” deal and literally proved it, parlaying his excellent season into a contract extension. While an argument can certainly be made that the franchise quarterback is the better contract value, we can’t forget about the big fellas up front who keep that quarterback upright.
Here’s our number-one salary cap value from the 2020 Buffalo Bills.
RT Daryl Williams
2020 Salary Cap Figure: $2.5 million cap hit (1.13 percent of Buffalo’s total cap)
2020 Stats: 1,048 offensive snaps played (96.32 percent), six accepted penalties, three sacks allowed
Williams signed with Buffalo after a poor year with the Carolina Panthers where he bounced all around the offensive line, but mostly sat in as a right guard. Williams’s best position is right tackle, where he excelled with Carolina in 2017, but injuries and ineffectiveness on the part of other players kept him from landing back at his best spot. When he signed with the Bills, there was no guarantee that he would be able to return to the form he showed in 2017, but he was among Buffalo’s most consistent linemen throughout the 2020 season. He made the Pro Football Focus mid-season All-Pro team, and he is one of four right tackles to have both a pass blocking grade and a run blocking grade of at least 78 over the last two seasons. The Bills protected their investment in Josh Allen with an elite right tackle at a fraction of the cost associated with that production. Williams’s $2.5 million cap hit tied for 25th among all right tackles in 2020, per Spotrac. Williams easily outperformed that contract, earning himself a three-year extension worth a total of $24 million, according to Spotrac’s figures. Thanks to all of those factors, we’re calling Williams the Bills’ best 2020 salary cap value.