Five ideas on how the Bills can create more salary cap space – Bills Blitz – The Buffalo News
Understanding the NFL’s salary cap should be its own college class.
For starters, each team has a different number it must abide by. The baseline number established by the NFL for the 2015 season is $143,280,000, but teams can carry over unused cap space from the previous year. That is combined with other undefined adjustments to establish a salary cap number for each individual team.
According to records from the National Football League Players’ Association, that number for the Buffalo Bills in 2015 is $145,781,930.
The Bills currently have 60 players under contract for the 2015 season. Those players account for $118,694,410, which leaves the team with $27,087,520 in cap space.
Sounds like a lot, right?
Not so fast.
As the last two days have shown, that money can be accounted for quickly. Once the trades for running back LeSean McCoy and quarterback Matt Cassel become official when the 2015 league starts at 4 p.m. Tuesday, that number will shrink.
Trading linebacker Kiko Alonso will save the Bills $419,055 in cap space, but that’s just a drop in the bucket when McCoy’s $10.25 million and Cassel’s $4.75 million salaries are added to the cap. That drops the Bills down to $12,506,575 in salary cap space.
However, even that number is not totally accurate when it comes to the start of the league year. That’s because the NFL has a quirky rule that only the top 51 salaries on each roster count against the salary cap until the start of the regular season. With that in mind, The Buffalo News estimates the Bills have committed $122,204,803 million to their top 51 when the additions of McCoy and Cassel become official. The team also has $6.722 million in “dead money” against their 2015 cap — that is money that must be accounted for to players no longer on the roster.
Combining those two totals gives the Bills, by News estimates, $16.855 million of cap space to take into free agency. Also keep in mind that cap space must be saved for draft picks — we’ll call that $3 million for now, since the exact amount won’t be determined until the official draft order is set.
So we’ll ballpark the Bills’ available cap space at $14 million for now. How can they add more? Here are five ways:
1. Cut Kraig Urbik. The Bills’ left guard carries a big cap hit at $3.75 million. Releasing him would free up $2.35 million in space. Urbik ended up starting nine games in 2014, but it was by necessity, not choice. Urbik ranked 58th among 73 ranked guards by the analytics website Pro Football Focus.
2. Ask Eric Wood to take a pay cut. After McCoy’s addition, the Bills’ center will have the fourth-highest cap number on the team. He’s the sixth-highest paid center in the NFL in terms of yearly average, at $6.35 million, but ranked 25th in PFF’s ranking of centers. Wood acknowledged his play must improve at the end of last season.
“I just hope I’m safe,” he said. “A high-price center in the middle of the field that could be playing better. I’ve got to look at myself first. I can’t be pointing fingers and looking around. I have to evaluate myself first and worry about my game and constantly try to get better.”
Wood’s a captain who gets credit for being a team-first guy. He can show it by reducing his salary — let’s say by $2 million.
3. Ask Mario Williams to restructure his contract. About the only good thing that comes from not having a franchise quarterback is the financial flexibility that comes with not having to pay a franchise quarterback. That allows the Bills to swallow Williams’ massive $19.4 million cap number in 2015. Of that number, $12.1 million is in base salary. The Bills can convert a portion of that to a signing bonus, which would spread the hit out over the remaining three years on his deal. For example, if they turned $3 million into a signing bonus, Williams’ cap hits would look like this the next three seasons: $17.4 million (a $2 million savings for 2015), $20.5 million, $17.5 million.
4. Give LeSean McCoy more guaranteed money. McCoy’s contract has three years and $25.25 million remaining on it, but only $1 million of that is guaranteed. The Bills are obviously counting on McCoy to be their running back for the foreseeable future, so restricting his deal would be a win-win for both sides. The Bills get more cap space now to be aggressive in free agency, while McCoy gets what every player wants — guaranteed money. If the Bills converted $7.5 million of McCoy’s 2015 base salary to a signing bonus, his cap hits the next three years would look like this: $5.25 million, $9.65 million, $10.35 million. Those last two years are big cap numbers for a running back, but the Bills could extend McCoy’s contract or release him with a manageable dead money number to get out of them if they had to.
5. Cut Bryce Brown. The Bills wouldn’t have traded for McCoy if they thought Brown could be their franchise back. His $660,000 salary isn’t exorbitant, but it’s more money than needs to be spent for a fourth running back — a position not all teams even keep. Cutting Brown comes to $0 in dead money.
If the Bills were to execute these five moves, it would save them just over $12 million in cap space for 2015, while increasing their 2016 commitment by only $3.5 million.
That additional cap space that could be created may be the difference in being able to re-sign defensive end Jerry Hughes, while adding a starter at guard and, possibly, tight end.
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