The Buffalo Bills season came to a devastating end Sunday when they lost 38-24 to the Kansas City Chiefs. The Bills will look to retool & revamp at some areas, particularly on the defensive side. With 8 draft picks & a limited amount of cap space, the Bills & Brandon Beane will be in a tough situation this off-season.
Make roster cuts:
Releasing WR John Brown $5M cap saved, DT Vernon Butler, $5.8M cap saved, TE Lee Smith $2.2M cap saved, and DT Quinton Jefferson $5M cap saved adds up to $19M cap space Buffalo will be able to use this off-season. With approximately $6M in cap rollover & $1M already in 2021, Buffalo will have around $26M in cap space.
Re-sign Josh Allen.
Allen took a massive leap from year 2 to year 3, becoming a top 5 QB in the league and shocking even Bills fans. Allen could potentially demand a contract worth around $190M over 5 years, adding up to $38M annually. He has 1 more year left on his rookie deal, plus a 5th year option, before he will become an unrestricted FA. The Bills will likely need to backload Allen’s contract to make up for the decrease of the salary cap this year.
Re-sign Darryl Williams Jon Feliciano, and Matt Milano:
Buffalo will have over a dozen Free Agents to start the off-season. A few players they will need to re-sign will be OL Darryl Williams, OL Jon Feliciano, and Matt Milano. Both Feliciano & Williams were crucial pieces to the teams OL. When Matt Milano was on the field, the Bills went 13-1 this year. The tricky part will be managing the salary cap with these FAs. Milano will most likely demand $10M+ per year with Williams taking a smaller deal.
Draft a pass rusher, CB, and TE:
The Bills need to revamp these 3 positions in particular. The pass rush has been shaky since the loss of Jordan Phillips, Shaq Lawson, and Star Lotulelei opting out of the season. Mario Addison & AJ Klein both lead the team with a mere 5 sacks. The teams secondary was their strong suit the entire season, but that doesn’t leave out the need to improve the CB position. Levi Wallace is off and on with Buffalo. They will need to draft a man corner who can handle taller receivers well because Levi is too small to guard them (DeVante Parker 2x a year). Dawson Knox showed improvement at the end of the season, especially in the red zone, totaling 6 TDs (including post season). But the team doesn’t have a tight end who will take the top off the defense & somebody Josh can rely on week after week.
Oh, and I never even mentioned the need for an interior OL & RB either.
