The Buffalo Bills are $15 million over the salary cap heading into the 2026 NFL offseason. There are only four teams in the league right now with a worse cap situation. That means moves must be made, not just to get back under the cap, but to free up enough room to make meaningful roster moves. It won’t be easy, but with these three moves, the Bills can clear enough salary cap space in the 2026 NFL offseason to restock their aging roster for another run at a Super Bowl next season.
Cut veteran players to save money
Brandon Beane likes to complain that he is hamstrung by the fact that Josh Allen will make $56.3 million next season. While that’s a big number, and teams like the New England Patriots with a quarterback on a rookie contract do have a financial advantage, Allen’s salary is not the problem.
The biggest problem is that veteran players who aren’t the best players in the league are making progressively more and more money each season, while those players' contributions either stay the same or decline. We’ll get to what to do about those players who are worth keeping below, but for now, let’s focus on the ones that are not.
Wide receiver Curtis Samuel, kicker Tyler Bass, and safety Taylor Rapp are all veterans who have outlived their usefulness on the Bills roster. Combined, these three will make nearly $20 million next season. Cutting them will result in $6 million in dead cap, but overall, it will save the Bills around $10 million and get them to -$5.7 million in cap space, which is a good start.
As far as straight cuts go, there aren’t a ton of additional candidates. Cutting players like WR Josh Palmer or defensive lineman Michael Hoecht won’t save any money. If Beane does want to cut deeper, there are a few other players who are replaceable and will save the Bills money against the salary cap, albeit not a ton.
Those players include cornerback Taron Johnson ($1.9M in savings), linebacker Dorian Williams ($3.6M), running back Ty Johnson ($1.5M), and CB Dane Jackson ($330K). If Beane were to make those cuts, it would bring the Bills’ salary cap basically back to even heading into the 2026 NFL offseason.
Convert salary into void years
If you follow the NFL at all, you’ll hear many pundits say that the salary cap isn’t real. That’s because teams can push money down the line by converting the player’s salary to a signing bonus, which reduces the cap figure but adds “void years” to the end of the deal. And as the cap goes up, that money becomes less and less impactful each new offseason.
When teams do this enough (see: the New Orleans Saints), the bill will eventually come due, and the amount of dead cap due to void years will become crushing for at least one season. However, for a team like the Bills that is in win-now mode as Allen turns 30 in May, these future seasons are far less important than 2026, 2027, and 2028.
So, the easiest way for Beane and the Bills to clear cap this offseason is to convert some of the bigger money deals in this fashion to reduce the cap number. The biggest no-brainer of the bunch is Allen himself. The team can convert his contract from a $56.3 million cap hit to a $44.2 million one with no void years added, saving almost $12 million.
After that, the Buffalo front office can take Dion Dawkins from $24.8 million to $13.5 million (three void years), Spencer Brown from $19.3 million to $8.9 million (two void years), and Palmer from $11.7 million to $4.9 million (three void years). Those four moves alone will save the Bills over $40 million in salary cap space.
Extend Ed Oliver and Dawson Knox
Last but not least, the Bills can extend two of their young stars to reduce their cap figure for 2026 while making sure they stay around for the next few crucial seasons. A two-year, market value extension for Oliver could bring his cap figure from $24.8 million to $12.5 million next season, while Knox could go from $17.8 million to $5 million on a two-year deal. Together, this will save $24 million.
When you add all this up—the three cuts, four conversions, and two extensions—take the Bills from -$15 million to $58.9 million in space, which is plenty to make some moves to compete for a Lombardi Trophy again next season.
