PFF: Mario Addison is Bills’ top cut candidate
Each offseason most teams have salary cap cut candidates. The 2021 offseason is a bit extra, though.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic keeping fans out of the stands, NFL revenues went down last year. That’s causing the salary cap to also go down in 2021. Because of that, there’s a bigger emphasis on such cuts now.
Considering that, Pro Football Focus used their findings to peg one cut candidate for each team in the NFL. For the Bills, it was defensive end Mario Addison.
Here’s how the football analytics outlet breaks that down:
Addison will be 34 years old for the 2021 campaign and has now seen his overall grade drop by 6.5 points in consecutive seasons, from 69.9 in 2018 to 63.4 in 2019 and finally to 56.9 in 2020. He’s trending in the wrong direction as Father Time catches up to him, and Buffalo has to get younger at edge rusher.
Addison did actually lead the Bills’ edge defenders in sacks in 2020 with five. But the problem was his consistency. Jerry Hughes had 4.5 sacks, but was a thorn in the side of opponents in the backfield.
It does appear that the Bills do agree with such a thought because the team is reportedly chasing defensive end JJ Watt. If Buffalo does land Watt, it could signal Addison’s departure.
All things considered, something appears to be on the horizon for Addison, whether it’s a contract restructuring or a cut. Really the biggest issue for the Bills might just simply be timing.
PFF lays out it out on Addison’s contract:
Current Projected cap space: (-)$1,011,351
Cut cap savings: $6,190,625
Cut dead money: $4,000,000
Post-June 1 Cut cap savings: $8,190,625
Post-June 1 Cut dead money: $2,000,000
Essentially, if Addison is cut in June, the Bills save more against the cap. But the bad news is that free agency starts in March. Buffalo general manager Brandon Beane has his work cut out for him here.
