Buffalo Bills' updated salary cap situation after the Stefon Diggs trade
Stefon Diggs is no longer a member of the Buffalo Bills and while Josh Allen lost his best playmaker, the bigger talking points are coming in the form of the salary cap implications.Sure enough, when breaking down the numbers, it's clear the Bills wanted to get rid of Diggs. The team is eating around $31 […]
Stefon Diggs is no longer a member of the Buffalo Bills and while Josh Allen lost his best playmaker, the bigger talking points are coming in the form of the salary cap implications.
Sure enough, when breaking down the numbers, it's clear the Bills wanted to get rid of Diggs. The team is eating around $31 million in dead money, thanks to the decision to go ahead and finalize the trade ahead of June 1. If both sides waited until after June 1, then the trade would clear more than $19 million in cap space. At the same time, however, why would the Bills want to hold onto a guy who won't be around and why would the Texans want to wait that long to get him acclimated?
Either way, the financial aspect of the move is interesting. The reason Buffalo has to eat so much dead money is because of the $47.985 million Diggs received at signing. It came in the form of a $21.5 million signing bonus, his 2022 and 2023 salaries (a combined $10.494 mil), plus a $16 million 2023 option bonus. All of that is prorated over a certain amount of time, therefore, only around $17 million of the guaranteed money had been accounted for via the NFL's books.
In all, the team actually loses $3.242 million after trading Diggs, which knocks the Bills down to $4,433,107, after previously standing at $7,675,107, per Over The Cap. OTC projects the Bills' draft class to cost $3,245,402, so the team has enough cap space, currently to where it doesn't have to worry about that down the road.
Still, teams like to reserve around $3-$5 million in "operating money" for the regular season, in case an in-season injury signing needs to be made, a big-name player becomes available via trade, or something like that. So, don't be surprised if the Bills make another move or two down the road in order to create some cap room. Whether it's extension, restructure, or straight-up cut remains to be seen, but I'd definitely keep my ear to the ground.
