Further cleanup salary cap
Though Buffalo sits near the top of the league in salary cap space, there’s still room for the team to improve its financial situation.
While it’s difficult to call anybody a ‘cap casualty’ when the team has nearly $90 million in cap space, don’t be shocked if the Bills part ways with defensive end Trent Murphy this offseason.
Recency bias may suggest that this thought is ludicrous, as Murphy tallied two sacks in each of Buffalo’s final two games of the 2019 season (including its postseason loss).
However, this is the first time that Murphy has made a consistent impact in a Bills’ uniform since inking a three-year, $21 million deal with the team in the 2018 offseason.
Injuries have prevented Murphy from becoming the dominant pass rusher that Buffalo hoped he would become. He appeared in 13 games in the 2018 season, notching just four sacks.
Though he remained healthy throughout the entirety of the 2019 campaign, his pass-rushing impact was relatively minimal. He tallied five sacks in 16 starts. He entered Week 17 with just three.
Murphy is by no means a poor player, and keeping him around certainly wouldn’t be a bad decision on behalf of the Bills. He is, however, set to account for $8,950,000 of Buffalo’s salary cap in the 2020 season, according to OverTheCap. As of now, he’s the team’s fifth-highest paid player.
Nine sacks in two seasons is simply not an ideal stat line for a player whose cap hit comes in at roughly $9 million. The Bills could free up over $7 million by releasing Murphy, money it could use to re-sign Shaq Lawson.
Though incredibly unlikely, Tyler Kroft and Ty Nsekhe are also names to watch this offseason. While it’s difficult to foresee either cut happening, it must be noted that Buffalo could free up $5 million and $3.7 million by releasing Kroft and Nsekhe, respectively.
Kroft dealt with injuries throughout his debut season at One Bills Drive, and thus, the team will likely want to have him healthy for a full season before making a decision on his future. Nsekhe platooned with rookie Cody Ford at the right tackle position in 2019, and though Ford will likely be the full-time starter moving forward, Nsekhe is still a valuable depth piece.
Eli Manning picked by Trent Murphy off a deflection by Ed Oliver. Manning staring down pic.twitter.com/iuNcP3qcCx
— Ian Wharton (@NFLFilmStudy) September 15, 2019