We have the amount of cap space the Bills cleared on Wednesday.
We’ve been saying all offseason that the Buffalo Bills were projected to be significantly over the salary cap in 2024. Despite a record increase this offseason, the Bills still had to clear more than $40 million in cap space and on Wednesday, they dang near did all of it.
And it was brutal.
The Buffalo Bills released a series of beloved veterans and restructured the contracts of a couple mid-career veterans on their way to getting cap compliant. The goodbyes are going to be bitter this year, and the list is almost everyone we talked about in February.
- Tre’Davious White released ($10.2 million cap relief*)
- Jordan Poyer released ($5.5 million cap relief)
- Mitch Morse released ($8.5 million cap relief)
- Siran Neal released ($2.9 million cap relief)
- Deonte Harty released ($4.2 million cap relief)
- Nyheim Hines released ($5 million cap relief)
- Rasul Douglas restructured ($2.5 million cap relief)
- Von Miller pay cut ($8.6 million cap relief)
With the restructure, Douglas is guaranteed to be around for the current season. The same can likely be said for Miller.
White was designated as a post-June 1 cut, which means his cap hit will stay the same until June 1st but he can start looking for other teams and sign right now. Buffalo can’t spend his cap dollars until after June 1st.
All told, the Bills effectively cleared $47.6 million in salary cap on Wednesday for the 2024 season. Because of the way they structured White’s release, they currently have only cleared $37.6 million in space, which means they still have a move or two left.
Earlier this week they also traded guard Ryan Bates, to clear $1.4 million in cap space and earlier this offseason, they restructured guard Connor McGovern’s contract ($3.7 million in cap relief).
Together, the $42.7 million gets the Bills near cap compliance for next week, when they need to be under. With some sort of Josh Allen contract restructure coming soon, Buffalo will be able to sign some free agent replacements and their draft picks to reload for the season.
The bill comes due, always. This year, it happened to be on March 6th.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published prior to Von Miller’s pay cut and updated to reflect the change.