Indianapolis, Ind. (WGR 550) - What's the most money you've ever unexpectedly found in your pants pocket?
For Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane, it’s $10 million.
Of course it’s not his own money or even his own pants, but Beane’s the one in charge of making decisions that impact the team’s salary cap.
For a team that has a lot of challenges just to get under the cap, let alone have the ability to re-sign some of their own free agents and those from other teams, every dollar counts.
So when the NFL announced last week the salary cap will balloon to a record $255 million next season, it was roughly $10 million extra that Beane didn’t plan on having.
"We were conservatively planning for a number in the [$240 million range], so to get to $255 [million], I was smiling," Beane told reporters while at the podium on Tuesday at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis.
"Every dollar you can get helps you. We’re working now through guys to restructure."
Beane noted Tuesday the team has already done that with starting left guard Connor McGovern, freeing up $3.74 million. Others could be coming soon, according to Beane.
"We’ve had conversations going in the last few weeks with different players, representatives, various things," he said. "Whether it’s extensions, whether it’s modifying their contract, whether it’s, in this case, restructuring, which is really just moving some money, moving money down. We’re working through all that."
Before the Bills go on a spending spree with their new-found money, Beane says they’re going to have conversations with some of their own pending free agents.
Two of them, wide receiver Gabe Davis and defensive end A.J. Epenesa, are both coming off their rookie deals and ready to test the market.
"We love to draft, develop, and sign," Beane said when asked about those two specifically. "I think those guys have all developed well and earned the opportunity to go to free agency. Now that we know the cap, we’re working through getting under and, ‘How much can we create without totally piling up a huge mess in ’25 or ’26, whatever year it is?' We will have conversations with those guys like we will all the free agents."
The Bills have 21 total players scheduled to hit unrestricted free agency on March 13.
"There’s not a free agent I can think of that I’m going, 'Man, I don’t want that guy back,'" Beane said. "We’ll have lots of conversations and see where it goes."
