Buffalo Bills reportedly releasing wide receiver John Brown

The Buffalo Bills are part of the NFL news cycle for consecutive days now. On Tuesday, the Bills had restructured the contract of center Mitch Morse to work out a pay cut. On Wednesday, Jeremy Fowler reported that the Buffalo Bills have released veteran wide receiver, John Brown.

It took the Bills two years of negotiating to acquire Brown in free agency. Buffalo tried to grab him in 2018 free agency, but he took a one-year deal with the Ravens. The next year, the Bills got their guy Brown in free agency.

During his time in Buffalo, John Brown finally got the chance to be WR1 and that could have been part of his decision making process when choosing the Bills in 2019. In that first year with the Bills, Brown proved his worth with a career year earning 1,060 receiving yards and 6 touchdowns on 72 receptions. However, this past season Brown took a step back as his production was hindered by injuries.

After acquiring Stefon Diggs, Gabriel Davis, and even Isaiah Hodgins last offseason, the Bills have the flexibility in the wide receiver room to release Brown. As great as Brown was during his two years with the Bills his cap hit was just too much to manage in a year with limited funds. By making this move, the Bills create about $7.9M in cap space.

Coupling this move to create cap space with the pay cut that Mitch Morse took, the Buffalo Bills might be positioning themselves to make a bigger splash in free agency than most people anticipated. Could this mean the Bills are in the market to sign a deep threat in free agency? Maybe this means the Bills are trying to get younger and want to find a deep threat in the draft. Regardless, the Buffalo Bills are making calculated moves so far and it seems that it is all gearing up for a more exciting free agency than anticipated for Bills Mafia.