Bills GM Brandon Beane Shares Relief Over Increased Salary Cap: 'One Less Guy!'

With the Buffalo Bills facing a major cap crunch, the ceiling being higher than expected helps tremendously.

The Buffalo Bills still have a brutal salary cap situation to navigate this offseason, but at the very least, it's not as difficult as previously expected.

Last week, the NFL announced that next season's salary cap would be set at just over $255 million, much higher than previously-expected. That figure is also over $30 million more than last year's salary cap, marking the largest year-to-year increase in NFL history.

For the Bills, who are furthest over the cap at more than $41 million in the red, an increased salary cap can only be good news. Speaking to reporters at the NFL Scouting Combine, Bills general manager Brandon Beane expressed a sense of relief over the cap being higher than anticipated.

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“Our first challenge is getting our cap squared away and getting under,” Beane told reporters. “I was excited to see it at 255 versus 245. We thought it would be mid-240s, we were actually conservative and counting a little lower. When I heard it was going to be closer to 250 to 240 I thought this is good, maybe it’ll be 248. Pops out at 255 and it saves you. Maybe it’s one less guy you’ve got to release or restructure.”

The Bills obviously still have a lot of work to do just to become cap-compliant, but their job became much easier with this news.

Buffalo is trying to keep its Super Bowl window open as long as possible, so naturally, being able to keep more talent is massively beneficial. That said, Beane has to be careful to not find himself in an even worse salary cap situation down the road.

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“You don’t want to just credit card everyone and just pile it up,” Beane said. “At some point it comes due, so you’re trying to balance it. I don’t want to walk in at 2025 or 2026 and say, ‘We’ve got $112 million to unload, how are we even going to get into the season?’”