One has to wonder if Isaiah McKenzie is going to be back with the Buffalo Bills in 2021 following his most-recent post on social media via his Instagram account.
McKenzie, soon to be 26, posted a photo of himself which is certainly a message to Bills Mafia… but it’s kind of unclear if it’s a goodbye message.
The wide receiver does flat out say he’s unsure of what his future holds… but then also adds “this is not goodbye.” McKenzie then does get a shameless plug in for the BBQ joint he owns, but in all fairness, the restaurant’s Instagram page does look delicious…
On McKenzie’s football future, here’s his full message for you to make your own judgements on:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CKnNwEhJHfq/
Easy to see is that McKenzie’s future is definitely in question because he is going to be a free agent soon and his message certainly is cryptic, but there are a few things that we can draw from this.
First, he wants to be back in Buffalo since he states he “would love to finish what we have started.” However, this also sounds like there either have been no talks about an extension with the Bills and general manager Brandon Beane yet… or the two sides haven’t found much comment ground.
The Bills do have some tough decisions ahead and perhaps not re-signing a guy like McKenzie is on the docket. In 2020, McKenzie had career-highs in catches (30), yards (282) and touchdowns (5). McKenzie was mostly used as a gadget piece in Buffalo’s offense, but did that job well.
Last season McKenzie had a cap hit of $962.5K. Usually a pretty reasonable number, but because of COVID-19’s impact on the NFL this season, it’s unknown what the actual salary cap will be. The cap floor is currently slated to be $175M but eventually a number will soon be set. Per Spotrac, the Bills have a current 2021 cap number of $184.7M.
Without McKenzie at wide receiver the first name to look at would be Isaiah Hodgins. He missed his entire rookie season last year and would likely be the next man up. It’s unclear if he would be able to hone in such a unique skill set like McKenzie, though.
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