Bills Central

Bills among NFL leaders in future guaranteed salary despite offseason reshuffle

The Buffalo Bills are tied to over $66 million in guaranteed salary to non-quarterbacks in 2025 and beyond, among the most in the NFL.

Kyle Silagyi

Feb 28, 2023; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane during the NFL
Feb 28, 2023; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane during the NFL / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Fielding a perennially competitive NFL team evidently costs quite a bit of money.

The Buffalo Bills, despite an offseason reshuffling that saw the team move on from several stalwart starters in an attempt to partially reset its on-field and financial clocks, are still tied to a significant amount of guaranteed salary in both the immediate future and down the road. OverTheCap founder Jason Fitzgerald recently shared a list of the teams responsible for the most future fully guaranteed salary (notwithstanding quarterbacks and unsigned draft picks), providing a glimpse into the salary cap health of teams from 2025 onwards. The Bills have $66,140,530 guaranteed to non-quarterbacks in the 2025 season and beyond, the seventh-largest number in the NFL.

Left tackle Dion Dawkins takes up the most significant portion of Buffalo’s future guarantees, as he’s guaranteed $17,045,000 in 2025, per OTC. Gregory Rousseau also eats up a substantial percentage of the number, as his recently activated fifth-year option will see the defensive end earn a fully guaranteed $13,387,000 in 2025. The other non-quarterbacks on Buffalo’s roster who are guaranteed money in 2025 and beyond, per OTC, are DT Ed Oliver, CB Taron Johnson, TE Dawson Knox, DT Daquan Jones, CB Kaiir Elam, WR Curtis Samuel, and TE Dalton Kincaid; their guarantees range from anywhere between $1.9 million and $8.25 million.

According to OTC, Kincaid is the only player on the Bills’ roster who is currently guaranteed money beyond the 2025 season; he’s guaranteed $2,580,960 in 2026, the third year of his rookie contract.

Buffalo having $66 million guaranteed to non-quarterbacks past next season does not mean that the team is set to have more than $200 million in available cap space in 2025; just because money/salary is not guaranteed does not mean that a team is not tied to it. The Bills currently have 25 contracts on the books for the 2025 campaign that feature no guaranteed money, per OTC, but they still count toward the team’s payroll and against the salary cap. Buffalo has a total of 35 players currently under contract for 2025 and is projected to have roughly $13 million in cap space.

Related: Brandon Beane sounds off on Bills' dire salary cap situation

These numbers can, and likely will, change significantly by the time 2025 arrives as Buffalo restructures or extends pre-existing contracts, potentially guaranteeing new money along the way. 

Regardless, the list is an interesting means through which we can see the Bills’ cap health relative to the rest of the league. Topping the list are the Philadelphia Eagles, with WR AJ Brown, OT Jordan Mailata, and DE Bryce Huff taking up the most significant portions of the team’s $119,566,947 in guaranteed salary. The Jacksonville Jaguars and New York Giants are in second and third place, with DE Josh Allen and DE Brian Burns being their respective players with the most future guaranteed salary tied to them.

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Kyle Silagyi

KYLE SILAGYI