According to reports, the Buffalo Bills were able to agree to a restructured deal with defensive tackle Star Lotulelei.
While the new league year doesn’t start until next month and even though the Buffalo Bills have some of the most cap space in the NFL, this didn’t stop GM Brandon Beane and the front office from trying to find more.
According to ESPN’s Field Yates, the two sides agreed to a restructured deal that saw his base salary drop by $1.75 million but his salary for 2020 becomes fully guaranteed.
The Bills and starting DT Star Lotulelei have agreed to a restructured contract for the final three years of his deal.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) February 11, 2020
For 2020, Lotulelei’s base salary drops by $1.75M, but becomes fully guaranteed, with $2.5M in injury guarantees for 2021 added. Some benefit for both sides.
Star Lotulelei joined the Bills in 2018 and was one of Brandon Beane and Sean McDermott’s first big free agent signings. The team agreed upon a five year, $50 million dollar contract and entering this season Lotulelei had the third highest average salary on the team.
However, the production hasn’t always aligned with the contract and even though he had a dead cap number over $7 million, he could have been a player cut this offseason. The past two seasons, Lotulelei has 36 total tackles, two sacks and one interception.
Now that the two sides have agreed to a new contract, and the fact that his salary this year is fully guaranteed, it is almost a certainity that he will be on the team in 2020. This will answer at least one question for this team at a position with a number of questions.
The Bills will need to decide if they bring back Jordan Phillips, who led the team in sacks with 9.5 this past year. In addition, there are questions about how Harrison Phillips returns in the coming year. The former third round pick suffered a torn ACL in Week 3 against the Cincinnati Bengals. The team will likely give him every chance to have a bigger role in this defense going forward.
This is likely the first move of what should be a busy offseason for the Bills but it is a great start for Brandon Beane and the front office.