As a Buffalo Bills fan since 1988, I can honestly say that I can’t remember ever having a day quite like this one. On February 10, 2000, the Bills dismissed Bruce Smith, Thurman Thomas, and Andre Reed—three players who would go on to become Hall of Famers—a day that became known as “Black Thursday” for certain fans. I understand that the situation is a little different this time, but March 6, 2024, was comparable in the eyes of the fan base.
However, let’s put aside the sentimental significance of what transpired on this day and instead consider the implications for the Buffalo Bills, the impending draft, the 2024 campaign, and the years beyond that. Let’s first review the most recent events.
The organization reduced player pay by about $37 million, according to spotrac.com. The savings the team will receive upon Tre’Davious White’s official release are not included in this figure. He was marked by Buffalo as a post-June 1 cut, so the savings haven’t been applied yet. That adds another $10.2 million to the savings when it happens. On a crazy day, the Bills’ books saw over $50 million trimmed.
The Bills and Brandon Beane are far from finished either. A couple more of their pending free agents will probably be re-signed, and there will be more contract restructures in the near future. The drawback of all of this is that, according to spotrac.com, the Bills are presently carrying over $23.6 million in dead cap money, which includes 25 players. Furthermore, despite Rapp’s signing, there seems to be a significant gap at safety across from him. On the other hand, I had hoped that the Bills would take precisely this action. Making these reductions now will result in a much healthier cap soon.
Processing a great deal of reorganizations merely serves to exacerbate the situation later on. Restructuring is not the same as renegotiating, keep that in mind. The money owed in the current year is transferred to a future year when a contract is reformed. It’s not paid yet, but it still needs to be. This simply makes things more difficult in the long run. They may relieve themselves of some of these larger contracts considerably sooner if they take the loss now.
