Bills restructure Dion Dawkins’ contract, free salary cap space
General manager Brandon Beane slid a little nugget into his press conference this week about reconstructing someone’s contract en route. Now we have our answer.
On Thursday, the Bills reworked the deal of offensive lineman Dion Dawkins.
According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, Beane has dusted off his “ol’ faithful.” Once again, the Bills converted salary dollars on Dawkins’ contract to a signing bonus. That freed up $5.6 million in cap space for the Bills.
It’s a move that Beane has pulled off with contract reconstructions in the past to help free up cap space.
Following the changes, the Bills now have approximately $10.1M in cap space with the 2022 NFL regular season around the corner, per Spotrac.
In August 2020, Dawkins signed a four-year extension.
In recent weeks, Buffalo has had headlines connecting the team to free agent wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr… mostly because of pass rusher Von Miller. The wideout is still recovering from an ACL injury so he most likely won’t be signed by anyone in the NFL for a bit.
Regardless, the Bills typically do not free up salary cap in an effort to make specific moves right before a season.
In years past, Beane has wanted his team to have some flexibility on the cap when a season starts just in case something were to happen and a move would be needed.
Eventually that could be Beckham, but it likely will not be imminent.
