2026 Cap

[ColoradoBills]

3 minutes ago, GroteStreet said:

That is pathetic.  Thanks beane for mortgaging future cap space to pay for a mediocre roster today.

Maybe he can push 50m in dead cap onto 2027

 

Beane has a lot of issues, but $30M in dead money is average for a team in the NFL today.

 

[ShakAttack]

7 hours ago, thenorthremembers said:

 

They cant cut or trade Milano or Jones because next year is a void year.  They will be paying them to sit at home or play somewhere else.   They owe them what they owe them regardless.   Knox, Taron, Samuel, Rapp will all be cut or traded.   Another one to watch for is Oliver.  Trading or cutting him will save the team 15 million.   Those 5 moves will get them near 50 million in space. 

 

Lets wait and see what the Patriots look like when they play a 1st place schedule.  I wouldnt throw next year away just yet. 

I've been thinking about that lately, and the funniest part that I just realized today, is that we may VERY likely play the Chiefs yet again next season because it's very likely both teams end up in 2nd.

 

I guess that's alright though since in the regular season they apparently give us less issues than the Jets, Patriots.... or Dolphins now? *shrug*

[GolfandBills]

7 hours ago, aristocrat said:

Restructure Josh gives us 20 mil. Post June 1 cuts help. I got to 38 mil pretty easily 

Not getting the money till June doesn't help in March when free agency starts 

Edited 16 hours ago by GolfandBills

[thenorthremembers]

4 hours ago, ShakAttack said:

I've been thinking about that lately, and the funniest part that I just realized today, is that we may VERY likely play the Chiefs yet again next season because it's very likely both teams end up in 2nd.

 

I guess that's alright though since in the regular season they apparently give us less issues than the Jets, Patriots.... or Dolphins now? *shrug*

 

They have to play them anyways.   Its an AFC West year.   The good news is the Pats will have to as well.

[ganesh]

16 hours ago, thenorthremembers said:

 

They cant cut or trade Milano or Jones because next year is a void year.  They will be paying them to sit at home or play somewhere else.   They owe them what they owe them regardless.   Knox, Taron, Samuel, Rapp will all be cut or traded.   Another one to watch for is Oliver.  Trading or cutting him will save the team 15 million.   Those 5 moves will get them near 50 million in space. 

 

Lets wait and see what the Patriots look like when they play a 1st place schedule.  I wouldnt throw next year away just yet. 

They beat a 1st place Bills and a 1st place Bucs....I don't they are intimidated by anyone at this point of time.

[T master]

17 hours ago, corta765 said:

I was trying to understand what we can and cannot do with the cap in 2026 but I honestly do not fully get it. Knox & Samuel look like we can cut and gain 16.5, but the rest of the guys I cannot figure out where the space can be created (I Know it exists somehow).

 

Is there anyone who is a capologist who can explain what our most likely moves are?

I'd say cut Samuel for sure but they don't use Knox at all like they use to I think his problem is more a Brady thing then it is a Knox thing ! 

 

I'm thinking Brady has more of a scheming problem and doesn't know exactly how to use the weapons he has, some definitely have to go Samuel from what they were saying has been a total bust from day 1 and has been basically paid for 1 good game in 2 years he's done, Palmer & Moore have show'd little or nothing too .

 

I wish they would use Shavers more in the red zone & I think he would produce if given the chance, why would you bring the guy up after he has busted his ass to prove he can play then not use him makes NO sense in the way they use him .

 

The Bills have some weapons right there for the using but if you just look at them and don't implement their skill into the scheme why bother bringing them up ? Ty Johnson last year was huge for the offense and where has he been this year some as Knox just run around and look like your ready to play ...

 

 

[Kirby Jackson]

9 hours ago, GolfandBills said:

Not getting the money till June doesn't help in March when free agency starts 

I’m pretty sure that rule changed. You can designate up to 2 guys as “post-June 1” releases but you don’t need to wait until June 1 to do it. 

[stlbills13]

We'll restructure a bunch of contracts this spring to open up a bunch of cap space and then strike out again but we'll say we tried our darndest. 

[Kirby Jackson]

I think that the hardest part about FA now is that the best guys at positions of need no longer hit the market. Great WRs don’t really hit FA anymore. If they move, they’re traded like AJ Brown. With the exception of George Pickens (who has some question marks) you’re looking at 32 year old Mike Evans coming off of a season ending injury. Deebo is a role player that does what we already have. Shaheed is a good role player. Here’s the list: https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/free-agents/_/year/2026/position/wr 

 

That’s a big part of the reason that I think Torrence is traded before they have to pay him. They can plug in Anderson and hopefully have a minimal drop off. They can significantly upgrade at WR that way (I keep going back to Higgins). You just aren’t going to be able to get a WR1 unless you make a trade or get lucky in the draft. You may even trade up in the draft to get that guy (Carnell Tate). 

You can probably secure your other safety in FA (Jaquan Brisker) and depth elsewhere. Maybe you upgrade your backup RB there or find a speed WR that can also return kicks? You’ll also try to bring back some of your own like McGovern and Bosa. FA is no longer the time that you get impact players. There are a few, like Hendrickson, but in the last handful of years teams stopped letting those guys hit the market.

 

Edited 6 hours ago by Kirby Jackson

[Mango]

17 hours ago, GASabresIUFan said:

Just to warm everyone's hearts, the Bills have 33.221 million in cap committed for next year for the void years of players no longer under contract after this season including Milano ($11.071), Bosa ($7.2), McGovern ($4.805), Jones ($3.724), Epenesa ($2.861) and Ogunjobi ($2.57).

 

 

 

 

 

"Something, something, something, Cap Hell, something something" - Brandon Beane, 2017

[nuklz2594]

at this point make Josh Allen contract like former met Bobby bonilla. josh restructres contract until year 2050

[dayman]

Here's a Google Gemni Deep-research report put through NotebookLM's audio overview (i.e., a short podcast format audio file talking about 2026 cap moves):

 

https://screenapp.io/app/#/library/69134facfd6e054059c515e7/recents/24825780-b755-4af3-91ea-f4b1bb797918 

 

(not 100% perfect, for example they talk about cutting Edwards which I'm not sure about, but for 5 minutes of work this is pretty good)

Edited 5 hours ago by dayman

[corta765]

11 hours ago, ColoradoBills said:

 

Beane has a lot of issues, but $30M in dead money is average for a team in the NFL today.

 

Most teams with a franchise QB are carrying that dead money and they get the ability to restructure each off season to open 20-50 mil. If your lucky and hit big time on your picks you can really weaponize your space more which is why the drafting well is so important if you have a QB.

 

The flipside is once your team has your QB go and it is reset time the cap pain is real for a year or team ala the Saints currently.

[5ths the charm]

19 hours ago, Big Turk said:

It looks like they could free up about 23 million next year by designating Samuel and Knox as post June-1st cuts and also cutting Rapp who is in the last year of his deal next year, but since they are already almost 4 million over the cap next year, we would only have about $19 million to work with.

 

Assuming there would be some other restructures and/or moves involved. 

 

Have 5 void years hitting next year as well eating up cap space if we don't move to re-work those in Milano, Jones, Bosa, Epenesa, and McGovern. Would expect McGovern, Epenesa and Bosa to look to be extended... that would help lower those cap hits of roughly $15-16 million combined.  Milano and Jones are likely not returning and we are going to have to eat the cap hits of about $15 million total on them.

 

So we have some levers to pull but we will have to work around some things.

Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't restructuring, kick the can down the road and create cap issues for the following years?  So that we never get a chance to catch up?  Like credit card debt?

[Kirby Jackson]

2 minutes ago, 5ths the charm said:

Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't restructuring, kick the can down the road and create cap issues for the following years?  So that we never get a chance to catch up?  Like credit card debt?

It does but the cap increases every year. So you spread cap hits and take bigger hits in later years when there is more cap space available. For example, the cap is roughly $24M more this year than last year. 

[Big Turk]

19 minutes ago, 5ths the charm said:

Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't restructuring, kick the can down the road and create cap issues for the following years?  So that we never get a chance to catch up?  Like credit card debt?

 

Yes, the key is to balance them. I think they try to stagger contracts in a way that they have way to open up cap space when needed each year. Obviously it's an inexact science but overall I think they have managed that part pretty well. Now in terms of who they have chosen to give big dollar extensions to? That might be up for debate. 

 

Philly has a ton of void years hitting next year also, having 10 players totaling about $29 million...most are small, but Goedert is going to count $20.5 mil against the cap next year if they don't extend him. They've also got $43 million in Dead Cap Space next year.

Edited 4 hours ago by Big Turk

[CirclnWagons]

I don’t pretend to understand all the acrobatics involved in managing the cap but I do hear Brandon Beane mention “mortgaging our future” at lease 8 times every single time he speaks publicly. With a once in a generation talent under center who will be turning 30 soon, what’s wrong with taking a bit of a risk and seeing if we might be able to stop a run or catch a pass for over 5 yds? I can’t imagine we’ll be so incredibly happy we held onto some pick way down the road that it will negate waisting Josh’s prime years with the atrocious roster we currently have stacked around him. 

[corta765]

1 hour ago, CirclnWagons said:

I don’t pretend to understand all the acrobatics involved in managing the cap but I do hear Brandon Beane mention “mortgaging our future” at lease 8 times every single time he speaks publicly. With a once in a generation talent under center who will be turning 30 soon, what’s wrong with taking a bit of a risk and seeing if we might be able to stop a run or catch a pass for over 5 yds? I can’t imagine we’ll be so incredibly happy we held onto some pick way down the road that it will negate waisting Josh’s prime years with the atrocious roster we currently have stacked around him. 

It goes against Beane's inherit way of building a team which is through the draft, methodical, and with the opportunity to constantly have a chance year in year out. Beane would never go Les Snead style and say F-Dem picks or even more pronounced to do what Roseman has done in PHI. It was a while ago but Beane did clean up the Bills cap quite well which allowed for the team in 20-22. The problem was COVID took away cap increase that he had probably planned for with Josh to do more things on the rookie deal.

With that said I 100% agree that at some point as a GM you have to be willing to take swings. Diggs was a HR move, Josh had incredible years with him, the team won a ton of games and should've made a SB but regardless the GM made the proper move. Von was also the proper move just had an awful outcome and I have noted before that up until his knee got busted in DET he was playing at an incredibly high level which you had expected. What I do not understand is since then he has retreated from aggression which doesn't mean spending FA money, but even moving picks for a top player or moving up for a top player. For insistence this year he drafted Max and Sanders rounds 1-2 which fine makes sense, but you couldn't package your 3rd and a 2nd next year or something to move up for Jayden Higgins or Luther Burden at WR. Stuff like that the last 3 years is what I do not understand and is hurting the team.

Edited 1 hour ago by corta765

[Coach Tuesday]

2 minutes ago, corta765 said:

It goes against Beane's inherit way of building a team which is through the draft, methodical, and with the opportunity to constantly have a chance year in year out. Beane would never go Les Snead style and say F-Dem picks or even more pronounced to do what Roseman has done in PHI. It was a while ago but Beane did clean up the Bills cap quite well which allowed for the team in 20-22. The problem was COVID took away cap increase that he had probably planned for with Josh to do more things on the rookie deal.

With that said I 100% agree that at some point as a GM you have to be willing to take swings. Diggs was a HR move, Josh had incredible years with him, the team won a ton of games and should've made a SB but regardless the GM made the proper move. Von was also the proper move just had an awful outcome and I have noted before that up until his knee got busted in DET he was playing at an incredibly high level which you had expected. What I do not understand is since then he has retreated from aggression which doesn't mean spending FA money, but even moving picks for a top player or moving up for a top player. For insistence this year he drafted Max and Sanders rounds 1-2 which fine makes sense, but you couldn't package your 3rd and a 2nd next year or something to move up for Jayden Higgins or Luther Burden at WR. Stuff like that the last 3 years is what I do not understand and is hurting the team.

 

You wonder if he has an internal mandate to achieve year over year competitiveness, because of the uniqueness of the Buffalo market - they cannot, like an LA team, afford 1-2 terrible years because they mortgaged the future.  I don't know if that's the case or not, but it would make sense to me.

[Kirby Jackson]

1 hour ago, CirclnWagons said:

I don’t pretend to understand all the acrobatics involved in managing the cap but I do hear Brandon Beane mention “mortgaging our future” at lease 8 times every single time he speaks publicly. With a once in a generation talent under center who will be turning 30 soon, what’s wrong with taking a bit of a risk and seeing if we might be able to stop a run or catch a pass for over 5 yds? I can’t imagine we’ll be so incredibly happy we held onto some pick way down the road that it will negate waisting Josh’s prime years with the atrocious roster we currently have stacked around him. 

This in a nutshell is the frustration for a lot of us with Beane. If not now, then when? You have the best player in franchise history, playing the most important position in sports. He’s in his prime. Everything that comes after him is irrelevant. You probably have 5 or 6 elite years left of Josh. You need to do everything to maximize that window. That’s your chance to get 1 (or hopefully more).