5 players the Buffalo Bills could release to create cap space

Tyler Matakevich

Cap Savings: $2,500,000

Dead Cap: $750,000

Last offseason, the Buffalo Bills signed Tyler Matakevich to a contract extension that lowered his cap hit that year. However, as Matthew Fairburn noted at the time it was set up in a way that they could also release him this year with minimal dead cap.

Matakevich joined the Buffalo Bills in 2020 after four seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers, where he developed into one of the top special teams players in the league. He continued that trend in Buffalo the past two years, playing over 75% of the special teams snaps each year.

However, his playing time on defense is very limited with only 115 defensive snaps combined over the past two years.

Last month, the Bills signed Siran Neal to a three-year deal that made him the highest-paid player on special teams according to Ryan Talbot. It is hard to imagine that the Buffalo Bills would invest that much salary cap to two players who are primarily only special teams players. While it would be a big loss for the team, this is one move that could make sense.