Buffalo Bills: How Mitch Morse pay cut impacts offseason strategy

As reported earlier by Ian Rapoport, the Buffalo Bills and center Mitch Morse have agreed to terms on a pay cut that saves the team $2M on the salary cap in 2021. There are a lot of implications stemming from this decision, but I’m going to focus on how it affects the Buffalo Bills strategy for this offseason.

Once the Bills were eliminated from the playoffs this past year, fans and analysts began to focus on the offseason. The main priority being the creation of cap space because of the reduced salary cap for the 2021 season. This allowed people to speculate on who the Bills should cut to save money. Being one of the highest paid players on the team, Morse found his name swirling around those speculations far more than necessary.

Implication on Buffalo Bills’ free agents

Speculations went as far as to say the Bills could cut Morse and re-sign Jon Feliciano to be the center. Now, all of those speculations can be put to rest, because Mitch Morse is going to play center for the Buffalo Bills in 2021. The savings made on this pay cut could actually go towards tendering RFA Ike Boettger who could replace Jon Feliciano at right guard. Additionally, Boettger has the same positional flexibility value to play guard and center that Feliciano brought to the table. If the Bills can get a player with marginally the same value on the field at a fraction of the price, the discount should be taken.

Draft implications

The Bills can enter the draft with an offensive line of Dion Dawkins, Cody Ford, Mitch Morse, Ike Boettger, and Daryl Williams. I’m not saying this is a great offensive line, but it isn’t one that forces the Bills to draft an offensive lineman with their first round pick. In this scenario, the interior offensive line should still be addressed in the draft, but it wouldn’t have to be in the first round. The Bills could then get the best player available or maybe even focus on drafting a Matt Milano replacement in the first round. I’d go as far as to say that this hypothetical 2021 offensive line could enable Brandon Beane to trade up in the first round if he really liked a prospect falling in the draft.