The offseason salary cap cuts for the Bills and general manager Brandon Beane began this week. The first two players outright released by the team were defensive lineman Quinton Jefferson and wide receiver John Brown.
Jefferson, 27, made a brief comment about being released on Wednesday shortly after it happened. He’s taking it in stride and even used “business” decision when discussing it.
While the defender doesn’t sound like there’s any hard feelings… we’re unsure what to make of Brown.
On Thursday, Brown appeared on SiriusXM NFL Radio. He had some interesting comments.
First, he suggested to some extent that he did not see the release coming.
“You know, honesty, we didn’t know nothing, we weren’t even given a heads up,” Brown said.
In addition. Brown was curious if his quarterback in Josh Allen had anything to say about it.
“Like, I don’t know if they gave Josh Allen input on it,” Brown said. “He should have had input. Or, if he did have input I thought he would want me to stay.”
What’s most curious about Brown seeming to be surprised by the cut, he did actually make reference to potentially being released earlier this offseason. On Feb. 8, Brown took to his social media account via Instagram and responded to a fan and said “the future is what it is” and “I’m ready for anything.”
Perhaps the 30-year-old was more hopeful of a potential contract restructuring from the team? Or some other dialogue from the Bills?
Regardless, what’s done is done. Cutting Brown saved the Bills around $7.9 million against the salary cap. Prior to that, the Bills had approximately $3M in cap space, so Buffalo releasing him made sense.
The Bills could now work a new contact with Brown and potentially sign him for a cheaper deal. It remains to be seen if that happens, but during the same interview, Brown did admit he has interest in joining the Indianapolis Colts. His sights could already be elsewhere.
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