Photo by Dustin Bradford/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Like everything I write, this will be driven by data. If you don’t want to look at data, stop reading now.
Unfortunately there is not that much data available (for free) about the performance of offensive linemen. There is the publicly available data from PFF (which gives the overall rating of the player on the 0-100 scale and their color grade) and there is penalty data freely available from nflpenalties.com and recently pro-football-reference.com. There is also unit data like rushing stats from nfl.com, and espn.com and pressure allowed data that is available from pro-football-reference.com along with pass block win rate data from ESPN analytics. Unfortunately football outsiders have put all of their useful OL stats behind a paywall (power situation running, stuffed runs) so I will have to build those from stathead.com. Let’s start with the whole line analysis and compare the 2019 Bronco OL with the 2020 Bronco OL.
12 Bills free agency thoughts after release of John Brown & Quinton Jefferson
Updated Mar 10, 2021;
Just about four hours after the NFL informed teams that the 2021 salary cap would be $182.5 million, Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane began working to add cap space just four days before the unofficial start of free agency.
The Bills released wide receiver John Brown and defensive tackle Quinton Jefferson, adding $14.4 million in cap space just from those two moves alone. Buffalo also restructured the contracts of center Mitch Morse (on Tuesday) and Vernon Butler. Both players took pay cuts to shrink their cap hit, which should bring the team to around $20 million in cap space as things stand right now.
Buffalo Bills Release John Brown And Quinton Jefferson To Free Up Cap Space forbes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from forbes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) Buffalo Bills center Mitch Morse agreed to take a $2 million pay cut to secure his spot on the roster and help the team free up much-needed space under the salary cap, a person with direct knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press on Tuesday. In restructuring his contract, Morse has an opportunity to recoup most of the lost salary through incentives, the person said speaking on the condition of anonymity because the Bills did not announce the move.
Many teams have been waiting to see what their salary cap would be before they made big moves this season. That wait is over. The salary cap has been announced.