Bills’ Brandon Beane got extra creative with Leonard Floyd’s contract
General manager Brandon Beane has been known to get creative with contracts he signs players to.
The GM went above and beyond that with Leonard Floyd.
The 30-year-old pass rusher signed a one-year deal in Buffalo.
It’s much more than meets the eye.
Initially it was reported that Floyd signed for $7 million and up to $9M with incentives.
Prior to adding Floyd, Buffalo was up against the salary cap limit, even when factoring in the space created by the extension defensive tackle Ed Oliver signed.
How did Beane make it work? Buckle up.
According to ESPN’s Field Yates, Floyd’s deal has a base salary of $1.165M, all of which is guaranteed, and he’s owed a signing bonus of $5.835M.
The real curveball: Void years.
Beane and the Bills added three of them. That allows the team to spread the salary cap hits from Floyd’s contract across multiple years instead of all of it coming down on Buffalo’s cap in 2023.
All in all, Floyd’s cap hit is $2.624M this upcoming season. The Bills will still have Floyd on the books over the three void years, but the catch is keeping some cap space for this current season in case more moves are made down the line.
It’s a give-and-take, and in a way, shows Beane is all in on 20223.
