What would cutting Chase Claypool, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, and more mean for the Bills’ cap?
Like every position, the Buffalo Bills have to make some cuts at the wide receiver position at the end of August. Unlike other positions, there are some “name” cut candidates at the position with years of experience in the NFL. Because of their status as NFL veterans, there are some salary cap issues at play after signing bonuses, guaranteed money, and contractual language. Here’s an explainer.
Keon Coleman
Almost every penny of Coleman’s contract is fully guaranteed. He’s on the roster for three years, minimum.
Curtis Samuel
Samuel is also a roster lock based on his contract alone. His 2024 salary and part of his 2025 salary are fully guaranteed. If they cut him, his dead-cap hit would be $13.1 million, almost $10 million more than his current cap hit. Buffalo couldn’t even fit that right now.
Khalil Shakir
Shakir is a roster lock, so this will be short. If the Bills cut Shakir, they will have a $174k dead-cap hit and save almost $900k on the cap. But that’s silly talk.
Mack Hollins
I wouldn’t have said it when he was signed, but Hollis is pretty close to a roster lock at this point and has been consistently running in the top-four rotation. A sum of $600k from his salary is fully guaranteed, so if they cut him they’ll be on the hook for that until he signs somewhere else, but then that goes away. As he’s on a one-year deal with no void years, they could also use Hollins as a player who is cut on the initial 53-man roster but is brought back after they place another player on Injured Reserve. If they cut him and let him leave, his cap hit would go down by about $1.93 million.
Marquez Valdes-Scantling
This contract was originally the only one I was going to write about when he was running behind in the receiver derby. He’s since played his way into a roster spot, even though that’s probably still tenuous.
Valdes-Scantling’s entire contract is fully guaranteed, but that’s not really important right now. They’ve already paid him a $1.125 million signing bonus and his base salary is the league minimum. With offset language, if they cut him and he signs elsewhere for the league minimum, the Bills won’t have to pay any additional money nor commit that base salary number on their cap. If he lands on a practice squad, Buffalo would similarly have his salary lowered by whatever the other team pays him.
At worst, they cut MVS and he doesn’t sign elsewhere, they will need to pay him $1.125 million in cash and see his cap hit rise from $1.35 million to $2.25 million. That won’t stop general manager Brandon Beane from pulling the trigger if he doesn’t make the roster. They cut O.J. Howard two years ago with a higher cap commitment.
Chase Claypool
Despite a great start to his career, Claypool’s deal with the Bills is very team-friendly. They only paid him a $25k signing bonus and none of his salary is guaranteed. If he’s on the roster in Week 1 he gets a $75k roster bonus, but with a minimum base salary, his contract won’t be why he’s not on the roster.
Justin Shorter
As a draft pick in 2023, the Bills paid Shorter a $324,000 signing bonus, of which about $243,000 still needs to be accounted for on the cap. The rest of his contract isn’t guaranteed, so it would be zero additional cash and his cap hit would go from $876,000 down by $633,000 to that $243,000 number.
Xavier Johnson
Lawrence Keys
Tyrell Shavers
Bryan Thompson
Andy Isabella
K.J. Hamler
Lawrence and Johnson had UDFA signing bonuses of $10,000, Shavers and Thompson had $9,000 signing bonuses, and Isabella’s was $8,000. Hamler didn’t receive a signing bonus. They are all on minimum deals in 2024, so the cap impacts of releasing them are minuscule.