These are the top takeaways from the news that the Buffalo Bills released Spencer Long.
The Buffalo Bills have had to make some changes over the past week along their offensive line. It started last week with the news that Jon Feliciano would miss the start of the year due to a chest injury.
While some teams would struggle to replace Feliciano, the Buffalo Bills have great depth along their offensive line and the expectation was that they could find the replacement in-house. However, that changed when the New York Jets released veteran starting guard Brian Winters over the weekend.
The Bills front office wasted little time and reportedly agreed to a deal with Winters one day later. For the team to add Winters though, they would have to create room on the roster and announced the release of Spencer Long.
This certainly was a surprising move because Long is a veteran offensive lineman that provides versatility since he can play both guard and center. These are some of the takeaways from the team releasing Spencer Long on Tuesday.
Salary Cap Help
The first takeaways that jumps out about the release of Spencer Long is that it does provide some salary cap release, this year as well as next season. Long signed a three-year deal with the team last offseason and was entering the second year.
The release of Long frees up $2,775,000 in cap space while resulting in only $700,000 in dead cap. The third year of Long’s deal was a club option and he had a cap hit of $4,350,000. This is certainly is going to help the Buffalo Bills as the salary cap is expected to be significantly reduced to as low as $175 million.
In an offseason that Dion Dawkins and Matt Milano are set to be free agents, any little bit helps if the team wants to bring either or both players back.
Roster Chances Increase for Evan Boehm
While Spencer Long was not a starter, he was a key piece of the offensive line because he was the primary backup at the center position. While Mitch Morse did play all 16 games last year, he does have injury history dating back to his time with the Kansas City Chiefs.
This is why it is important to have a player that the coaching staff has confidence in a player who can step in as a starter if the need arises. That is why a player like Evan Boehm, who probably was on the bubble, should feel much better about his chances.
Boehm is entering his sixth year in the NFL after starting his career with the Arizona Cardinals for two years. He then had one year stops with the Rams then the Indianapolis Colts and recently the Miami Dolphins. During that time he has started 21 games but the reason his chances increase is his experience at center.
He started four games for the Colts at center in 2018 and started at the position for the Miami Dolphins last year. The fact that he has the most starting experience at the position among the backups should help his chances to make the roster this year.