If the Buffalo Bills were to pursue J.J. Watt, who was released on Friday by the Houston Texans, they are certainly going to have to create cap space. They could try to trade some players to free up space but likely will have to cut players to have the money to sign the star defensive end.
There are plenty of unknowns but assuming J.J. Watt gets a similar salary to what he had last year ($15.5 million) this is the number the Bills will need to get to. With that in mind, these are some players the Buffalo Bills could cut to get a deal done.
*All salary figures courtesy of Spotrac
Mario Addison
Let’s start at the position that J.J. Watt plays, which is the defensive end. The Buffalo Bills currently have four players under contract from last year’s active roster at the position with Jerry Hughes, Mario Addison, A.J. Epenesa, and Darryl Johnson.
If the Bills were to add Watt, they could move one of these players and the most likely candidate would be Addison. He played one season with the Buffalo Bills and at 33 years of age and with only five sacks, this is a move that would make sense.
If the Bills were to release Addison, it would result in $6.1 million in cap savings with a dead cap hit of $4 million. However, if they designate him as a Post June 1st release then that number jumps to $8.1 million and only $2 million in dead cap.
The Bills can designate two players as Post June 1st releases each year and Addison would likely be one of those to create that extra $2 million in cap space.
Cap Savings: $8.1 million
Dead Cap: $2 million