In just a few short seasons, Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane has entirely revamped the team’s salary cap situation. Spotrac recently updated the dead cap space totals for every NFL team and displays just that.
The Bills currently have $1.04 million in dead cap space against their salary cap. That’s the second-lowest total in the NFL. Only the Buccaneers have less with $88.2 thousand.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Panthers currently have the most dead cap against their salary cap in the league at a massive $48.1M. The next closest team is the Jaguars at $38M.
Those two help put the work Beane and the Bills have done into focus.
When Beane and head coach Sean McDermott moved into their positions with the Bills in 2017, the two started cleaning house. Often touting “culture” in their locker room, high-profile players such as receiver Sammy Watkins and defensive tackle Marcell Dareus were moved out. But such players aren’t just high-profile, they’re costly, too.
While off the team’s roster, the Bills still have to take on dead cap for moving these players. The club’s front office placed a bunch of that burden on the team’s salary cap during the 2018 season.
Heading into that season, the Bills had near $50 million in dead cap against the team’s cap. The next closest team was the Cowboys, half of that near $25M. That caused the Bills to fall to a 6-10 record after earning a playoff berth the year prior. But in 2019 when things loosened up, as things were once again during the current offseason, Buffalo made their way back to the postseason. The club is poised to make it back-to-back trips in 2020.
Looking at the Bills’ current dead cap situation through the lens of 2018’s roster, that’s a big change in a relatively quick manner.
For those wondering, the Bills currently have $19.4M in overall salary cap space, ranking Buffalo at the 12th most space overall in the league.
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