Bills Sign Cordy Glenn: Fall Into Pile Of Money

You know that feeling when you find a $20 bill in an old pair of pants? When your rich aunt or uncle just happens to cut you a check for some holiday when you were broke in college and were wondering if you can even afford to eat for the rest of the semester? Or maybe even a relative who you barely talked to passed away and you were unexpectedly included in their will (ok maybe that one was a little dark let’s move on)?

Yes, we are talking about falling into some money and the Buffalo Bills did the NFL equivalent of that while at the same time signing one of their best and youngest players to a deal which will keep him in Buffalo for the next five years.

We originally wrote up our thoughts on the Glenn deal six days ago but now that the salary cap figures have been released let’s take a closer look at how the Bills were able to save themselves millions of dollars towards this year’s cap.

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When Glenn originally signed his franchise tender with the team, he was due to count $13.7 million against the salary cap this season for the Bills. After signing a long-term deal, he will now only count $6.2 million against the team’s cap this year according to Spotrac.com. This frees up $7.5 million for the Bills to use to sign their draft picks as well as potentially signing Tyrod Taylor or Stephon Gilmore to long-term contracts.

Glenn’s total contract was a five-year, $60 million dollar deal with incentives which could make it worth $65 million total according to Mike Rodak of ESPN.com. It comes with $36 million total in guaranteed cash. His signing bonus of $16 million is guaranteed as well as all of his salary in 2016 and 2017. Additionally, in 2018, $8 million of Glenn’s $9.25 million salary is guaranteed.

Not that they would want to, but the way this deal is structured the Bills will not be able to consider cutting Glenn until 2019 where the dead cap space created by releasing him will drop to a reasonable $6.4 million dollars.

The move worked out great for both sides. Glenn got paid like one of the best left tackles in the league with plenty of guaranteed money while the Bills locked up the cornerstone of the left side of their line for five years while more than doubling their free cap space in 2016.

According to OverTheCap.com, the Bills are now estimated to have $13.7 million in free cap space for 2016. Signing their rookies should cost around $6 million of that so they have roughly $7.7 million to use in order to try and work out deals with Tyrod Taylor and Stephon Gilmore.

The Bills were able to save so much money in 2016 because they are only paying Glenn a base salary of $3 million in 2016. Glenn’s $16 million signing bonus is prorated over the length of the deal so that will only count an additional $3.2 million against the 2016 cap.

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Jim Overdorf and the rest of the Bills front office did a great job structuring this deal in a way that keeps Glenn happy and pays him as much as the best players at his position.

At the same time, due to Overdorf’s craftiness the Bills were able to have that wonderful feeling of falling into some unexpected money for 2016 just like if they had found a $20 in an old pair of pants, received a holiday check from a rich aunt or uncle, or fell into some inheritance from a relative they barely knew.

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