The NFL’s best wide receiver from 2020 likely just helped his team get even better in 2021.
According to ESPN’s Field Yates, wide receiver Stefon Diggs and the Buffalo Bills restructured his contract. Per usual, such a move gives the team more salary cap space.
The restructure comes after the Bills had already previously retooled other contracts on their roster to make more cap space. Some of those include cornerback Tre’Davious White, center Mitch Morse and defensive linemen Mario Addison and Vernon Butler.
The reason for the Bills restructuring contracts so much this offseason is because of the drop to this year’s salary cap. Due to COVID-19 keeping fans out of venues in 2020, NFL revenues dropped, causing the salary cap to also be lowered.
The cap is expected to go up again in 2022. Recently the league and players union agreed to a salary cap “ceiling” of $208 million, which is a good sign in terms of the cap likely going back up eventually. Almost every team, including the Bills, has also announced they expect to have full crowds at games next season.
Regarding the specifics of Diggs’ restructure, Buffalo general manager Brandon Beane managed to convert $11.7M of Diggs’ base salary for next year into a 12.7M signing bonus. That gave the Bills $7.8M more in cap space.
Previously the Bills only had near $3.2M in cap space, according to Spotrac.