7 moves the Buffalo Bills could make to clear $55 million in cap space

The Buffalo Bills are going to have some big decisions to make over the next few weeks before free agency begins March 13th at 4 PM. Between now and then the Bills are going to need to shed over $51 million just to get in compliance with the salary cap, which is expected to be $242.5 million according to Spotrac.

While it will be a challenge, it isn't impossible and the front office will have some options in front of them that will make it possible. They could look to release some players with big cap hits as well as work out new contracts for players who might be entering the final year of their deal. This option is a good way to lower their cap hit for this year and stretch the additional money over the additional years.

Another option would be to restructure contracts which essentially lowers their salary to veteran minimum and converts the additional salary into signing bonus that can be split over the remaining years of the contract. The downside with this move is that it makes the money guaranteed and if they were to be released in future years, the dead cap value goes way up.

It is tough to predict what players might get contract extensions and what their cap hit would be for this year. So for this exercise, I focused on players I believe could be candidates who might be released or have their contracts restructured based on the figures provided by Spotrac.