Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane has had an ongoing fight with the team’s salary cap ever since he signed Josh Allen to his first mega contract extension in 2021.
Starting in 2022, Allen has been Buffalo’s No. 1 cap hit and in 2025 when he signed his second massive extension, his cap number soared to $36.3 million which represented 13% of the Bills’ entire 2025 payroll.
That’s the price you happily pay for having a superstar quarterback, but it does make things more difficult to build a viable roster around that superstar quarterback, especially a team like the Bills who had nine players with cap hits north of $8 million last year which totaled approximately 40% on the books.
Beane is the man who put the Bills in that top-heavy position, paying what he believed were proper salaries for those nine players, and while most were the right calls at the time the deals were finalized (Allen, Ed Oliver, Dion Dawkins, Matt Milano, Connor McGovern, Spencer Brown and DaQuan Jones), some clearly were not (Dawson Knox and Curtis Samuel).
He has not been out of line when he has consistently pointed out the cap constraints, but with the NFL expected to announce in the next few weeks that the 2026 salary cap will rise by around $23 million from 2025, give or take a couple million up or down, Beane will not have that crutch to lean on this offseason.
He has some relatively easy maneuvers he can execute before the official start of the league year on March 11 that will not only get the Bills’ cap compliant, but give him plenty of room to operate as he seeks to upgrade a roster that needs it.
“We have a lot of work to do this offseason, like we do every year,” Beane said. “I understand the frustrations out there. No one puts more pressure on me than myself. We have an MVP quarterback who just completed his eighth season here. We have got to help him get to the Super Bowl and bring a championship to Buffalo.
“I already kind of know some things that we’re going to need to do to get under the cap, whatever that number is. And, it’s just hard to get too far down the road to talk this player or that player, but I know those conversations will intensify over the next three or four weeks.”
Buffalo Bills salary cap situation
Sports contract site Spotrac is projecting the league cap to be $303.4 million, and based on that figure it has the Bills sitting $10.2 million over. Buffalo has the seventh-worst cap situation in the league, but it’s way better than the Chiefs who are dead last at nearly $58 million over that $303.4 million baseline.
Using Spotrac’s roster management tool, here’s a path Beane can take to put himself in a healthy position going into the start of free agency negotiating on March 9, and when teams can officially sign free agents at 4 p.m. on March 11. The following contract and cap numbers, plus future projections, are not official and you can find slightly different numbers at other sports business sites, but these get pretty close to what the Bills will be staring at.
Which player contracts can be altered?
The easiest way to open up cap space is to restructure the contracts of highly-paid players who you are confident will be on the team for several years to come. You can take a current contract and convert base salary into bonus money and then spread those bonuses over the remaining years of the contract, though that is capped at five years. The following four restructures would open up almost $39 million.
QB Josh Allen: The No. 1 no-brainer move for Beane. Allen is scheduled to count $56.4 million but a simple conversion opens $12.1 million and just like that, the Bills are already under the projected cap and can then start building a nest egg to use in free agency.
OT Dion Dawkins: His play regressed a little in 2025 and he will turn 33 in April, but he is still a core player for the Bills. His $24.8 million cap hit is No. 2 on the team, but that can be reduced by $11.3 million.
DL Ed Oliver: He has two years remaining on his deal and his $23.9 million hit can be reduced by $10.2 million.
OT Spencer Brown: The youngest of these four players at 28, his $19.3 million hit can be reduced by $4.7 million.
Which players make sense to cut pre-June 1?
Obviously, releasing players with term remaining on their contracts will create dead cap hits for the Bills, the size of which depends on whether the cut is made between now and June 1, or after June 1.
The difference between these moves is this: When a player is cut before June 1, all of his future prorated money and guarantees attach to the current year’s cap, though whatever savings the team gets is immediately available. By cutting a player after June 1, the dead cap hit can be spread over the next two years which lessens the burden on the current year, but the savings are not available for use until after June 1. With the bulk of big-money signings happening before June 1, that can be problematic.
There are three easy pre-June 1 cut candidates that Beane shouldn’t even need to think about:
WR Curtis Samuel: This was one of Beane’s worst free agent signings, a player who was unavailable much of the time, and when he did play, produced very little. Cutting him saves $9.5 million, and after his $3.4 million dead cap, the savings is a touch over $6 million.
S Taylor Rapp: It’s possible the Bills could hang on to Rapp to see how he fits into the new defense, but moving on makes more sense and the savings is $3 million.
TE Dawson Knox: His contract has been a poor one given his production and this year he’s scheduled to count an absurd $17.8 million. By cutting Knox, the Bills would incur an ugly dead cap hit, but they would save $10.4 million. But while Samuel and Rapp should be gone, the Bills – if they really want Knox on the team, and he does have value as a player and as a leader – could re-sign him to a lesser contract, in effect a pay cut. And he might be amenable to that.
Which players make sense to cut post-June 1?
Again, knowing whatever savings the Bills will get won’t be available until after June 1, here are two potential post-June 1 cuts, and the money could be used for late offseason free agent signings and for signing the 2026 draft class which is expected to cost around $10 million. Whatever is left can be used, if needed, to bring in someone at the trade deadline.
CB Taron Johnson: His future in the new defense is unknown, and his level of play has dipped in each of the last two seasons. Perhaps the Bills wait to see how Johnson fits in the scheme during OTAs, and if it looks good, keep him, even with his hefty $11.4 million cost. But if it doesn’t work, cutting him creates $8.6 million in savings. They’d have to eat just $2.7 million in dead money this year, but would incur $6.7 million in dead money on the 2027 cap.
K Tyler Bass: After missing all of 2025 with a pelvic injury, Bass is set to count $4.9 million in 2026. Beane said he expects Bass to return, but if he doesn’t look right in OTAs, the Bills could cut him post-June 1 and save $3.9 million while incurring palatable dead caps of $1 million in both 2026 and 2027.
How much money could the Bills have to play with?
In summation, here’s what the Bills’ situation would look like if this game plan is put into place.
When factoring in the dead cap hits the seven conversions and releases would generate, and the fact that only the top 51 salaries count against the cap until the regular season begins, Beane would have around $45.2 million at his disposal when the free agent spending spree begins.
That would enable Beane to sign outside free agents, but also re-sign several of his own free agents. The two who carry the highest market projects according to Spotrac are guard David Edwards ($19.9 million average per year) and center Connor McGovern ($16.2 million). Bringing back both seems unlikely, but one is certainly a possibility.
The other key free agents he should be interested in retaining are fullback Reggie Gilliam (perhaps around $2.5 million), linebacker Shaq Thompson ($2.5 million), special teamer Sam Franklin ($1.7 million), defensive back Cam Lewis ($1.5 million), and backup QB Mitchell Trubisky ($4.4 million).
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for more than four decades including 36 years as the full-time beat writer/columnist for the D&C. He has written numerous books about the history of the team, and he is also co-host of the BLEAV in Bills podcast/YouTube show. He can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: The salary cap math that could reshape the Buffalo Bills roster
Reporting by Sal Maiorana, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
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