With the conclusion of Super Bowl 56, the aim for the Buffalo Bills now turns toward the offseason. We have free agency in March which then leads toward the Mecca of the NFL’s spring calendar: the draft in April.
But before we get there, the Bills have some work to do. Namely, Buffalo general manager Brandon Beane does.
According to Spotrac, the Bills are just slightly over the $208 million 2022 salary cap. That’s no big deal, but if Buffalo wants to be able to spend some decent dough, Beane has to shift some things around to find some space.
One person that was very confident in the Bills’ ability to do that was New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen.
Earlier this month, Schoen made a subtle, but interesting comment during his introductory press conference after the former Buffalo assistant GM was hired by the Giants. He said he was working on the Bills’ cap situation before taking his new job, and noted there was a plan to find some dollars in Orchard Park.
“I was working towards free agency [in Buffalo]. We were going to have some money over there,” Schoen said, slipped into a longer answer about New York’s draft and salary cap plans.
Now we just have to decided how this can be interpreted. Does Schoen mean a little… literally? Or is he being suggestive toward something maybe slightly bigger?
At his own end of season press conferene, Beane tried to brush aside the notion of it being the latter.
“We’ll still have to make some moves but I wouldn’t see us being like big spenders but we’ll definitely look to fill some spots from the outside as well as retain some of our guys,” Beane said.
Time will tell if the Bills do end up making any splashy moves this offseason. But one thing to also remember: It is smokescreen season once again.
Anything can and will be said over the course of the next few months by NFL front offices in an effort to help teams… help themselves.
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