The Bills exercising the fifth-year options on the rookie contracts of quarterback Josh Allen and linebacker Tremaine Edmunds were easy decisions at surface level.
However, beneath that, there are a lot of moving parts.
For some time now, Bills general manager Brandon Beane has discussed that. Most know the salary cap has dropped due to COVID-19 causing fans to not attend games last year. But the situation Beane is dealing with goes even further than that he recently revealed.
Beane, chatting on the Howard and Jeremy Show on WGR-550 on Tuesday said how changes in the CBA has caused the fifth-year option figures for both players to increase. Naturally that, combined with the decreasing salary cap which no one saw coming, makes things a little harder.
Beane explained:
“I think, going back to what I said at the pre-draft press conference. The math has been very hard here because this new CBA [collective bargaining agreement], when we took those guys back in ’18, we would have been paying Josh, the projected rate was about $18 million and Tremaine around $9 million, so you’re talking $27 (million). And the cap was supposed to be, you know, if we don’t have the pandemic, the cap was supposed to be well into the 200s, $215-220 (million). And so, you add the CBA change to where that ’18 draft class became the class, it’s based on Pro Bowl and various recognitions, that you could increase your number. So Tremaine’s number went from $9 something, to $12.8, and Josh went from $18 to $23. That’s a big difference anyway, and then you add in that the cap went the other way, it’s just made it a tighter constraint.”
Moving forward, the best option for the team would be to find a way to extend contract extension to both players which lower their salary cap hits in the short term. The Bills might be in a position where they’d like to backload both extensions because as of now, fans will attend games in 2021. Fans in venues likely means an increase to the salary cap beyond 2021 so the team could more easily manage such a structured contract.
Beane did admit that working on potential long-term extensions will happen with both players this summer, but he didn’t make any guarantees.
“There’s ways we can get creative,” Beane said. “We’ll see how that plays out.”
As of now, we do know that at least Allen is open to the idea of an extension. Last month, Allen said he is ready to talk to the Bills about an extension at any time.
“There’s a lot of different ways you can go about it. Honestly, like I love playing football… If we can get to something soon, I’d obviously love to be locked down in Buffalo for a very long time. It’s a place that I call home. I love being there, I love the fan base, I love the city, it’s everything I want,” Allen said. “If they called up and wanted to talk tomorrow, I’d be willing.”
It remains to be seen if the Bills do manage to get Allen and Edmunds under new deals in the coming months. Beane appears to still be taking the approach that there is no rush to do so, though.
Beane slipped in a comment on Tuesday that while extending both players is something they want to do if it works for both sides, but he did add that the extensions are not the only way the Bills could add salary cap space. The GM specifically noted converting parts of other contracts on the roster into signing bonuses as a possible way to do so, among other ways.
Per Spotrac, the Bills currently have $3.7M in cap space. That’s the fifth-smallest amount of space in the NFL.
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