Helps settle future finances
What’s going on with the future salary cap in the NFL? Well… we don’t really know, but signing McDermott to an extension at least gets the Bills over one financial hurdle the team was set to face over the next year or two.
As the Bills head into the regular season, we’re currently expecting games to be played in front of empty seats. As a safety precaution due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, some stadiums won’t allow any fans. Some might allow less-than-full capacity. But either way, revenues in the NFL are going to be down, and that has its ramifications. Reportedly the owners and players union agreed to a salary cap floor of $175 million in 2021. That could go up, but being so much smaller than the current salary cap of $198.2M, teams are going to be scrambling to figure their finances out.
And yes, McDermott’s contract does not factor into the team’s salary cap total. But Bills owners Terry and Kim Pegula own the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres and Pegula Sports and Entertainment. Those two organizations have seen highly-controversial layoffs. COVID-19 is certainly playing a part there. Thus far, the Bills appear to be unaffected by that.
McDermott’s situation not only signals that… “The Bills are separate” mindset is still in-tact, and just within the Bills organization itself, it helps ownership check one more thing off the box. McDermott’s done, now maybe next is Beane? Once those two are in place, the financial picture for players like Tre White, Matt Milano and Dion Dawkins becomes clearer.
Not that we’ll have any knowledge of such a situation, but that’s probably the case behind closed doors.