Buffalo Bills: Extension for Tre’Davious White got a little more expensive
The recent deals for Byron Jones and James Bradberry likely raised the dollars in a potential contract extension between the Buffalo Bills and Tre’Davious White.
While it hasn’t happened yet, the Buffalo Bills are likely to pick up the fifth year option on cornerback Tre’Davious White this offseason. However, the hope was that it wouldn’t be the only contract move the team made on the star cornerback.
There was a chance that the Bills and Tre’Davious White could begin discussing a contract extension that would keep him in Buffalo past the 2021 season. There is still that opportunity but the cost of doing business likely just increased due to recent deals.
On Monday, the NFL opened the legal tampering period, which over the course of two days NFL teams is able to negotiate deals with agents of free agents. The first day saw the top two free agent cornerbacks go off the market with ESPN’s Adam Schefter tweeting that Byron Jones agreed to a five year, $82.5 million contract which made him the highest paid cornerback in the NFL.
This deal only came after Schefter tweeted that the New York Giants agreed to a 3-year, $45 million contract with former Carolina Panthers’ corner James Bradberry.
These two deals essentially reset the market for top cornerbacks in the NFL. Prior to this offseason, only one cornerback was averaging over $15 million a season which was Miami Dolphins’ Xavien Howard, according to Spotrac.
After Howard, there was three cornerbacks that were making over $14 million with Trumaine Johnson, Patrick Peterson and Marcus Peters. However, Johnson was cut this offseason by the New York Jets.
When the Bills begin negotiations on a new deal with Tre’Davious White, if they haven’t already, White’s representatives will now point to Jones and Bradberry’s deals as benchmarks. After this past season, White has a strong case to be in this same range based on the play of the cornerbacks being discussed.
White’s performance, which included tied for the league lead in interceptions with six, as well as Pro Bowl and First-Team All-Pro selections, has warranted that.
Next. Best moments for Bills over the past five seasons. dark
At the end of the day, this is likely a deal that will get done and the increase in demands shouldn’t give the Bills front office too much pause. However, when managing a salary cap it makes it a little tougher and will force Brandon Beane to have to make some hard decisions down the road.