Taron Johnson highest-paid nickel after three year extension with Bills

The Buffalo Bills reportedly on Monday made sure to keep one of their key defensive players in Buffalo past this season. According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, the Bills and Taron Johnson agreed to a three-year extension worth $31 million which makes him the highest paid nickel in the NFL.

This is slightly more than Kenny Moore's contract that he received from the Indianapolis Colts last week for three years worth $30 million.

It may be a big contract but was a necessary move as Johnson has emerged as one of the best nickel corners in the league. He was selected second-team All-Pro last season and the Bills spend almost their entire time on defense in nickel. Johnson has played at least 85% of the defensive snaps each of the past three seasons.

The Buffalo Bills secondary has gone through some notable changes this offseason and lost a lot of veteran experience with Tre'Davious White and Jordan Poyer released and Micah Hyde a free agent. This now makes Taron Johnson the veteran of the group and should be able to lead this new group in the secondary.

Buffalo Bills should receive some additional cap space this offseason

The extension for Johnson was a big contract but should help the Buffalo Bills this offseason. Entering this season, Johnson has a cap hit over $12.4 million and now the team should be able to significantly lower that total and spread it over the three new years of his contract.

This is something similar the Bills did with left tackle Dion Dawkins, who was also entering the final year of his contract. However, he received a three-year contract extension and the Bills were able to lower his cap hit by $5.1 million.

It will be interesting to see how much the new contract saves this offseason and what subsequent moves are made by Buffalo with the new cap space.