Like most bills fans, I can barely comprehend what happened last night and the complete choke from a play calling perspective with 13 seconds left in the game to allow KC the chance to sneak back into the game and ultimately win in the end will haunt me for a long time. In an effort to deflect in a different direction, what does everyone expect for the Offseason? For purposes of this conversation I'm speaking strictly player moves and not factoring in coaching changes.
The Bills have $9.5 million in projected cap space for 2022 and their biggest ways to save cap space include cutting center Mitch Morse ($7.5m), Daryl Williams ($5.3m), and Cole Beasley ($6m). Key free agents include Emmanuel Sanders, Mario Addison, Jerry Hughes, Levi Wallace, Isaiah Mckenzie, Mitchell Trubiski, and Harrison Philips (Bates is a restricted free agent so I assume he will be back).
Obviously we can't resign everyone with such a limited amount of cap space and will have limited chances for key upgrades as well. So what are the biggest needs? I'd say d-line (defensive end primarily), and then potentially cornerback, wide reciever, and o-line (center/guard but Spencer Brown isn't surefire from my perspective either) depending on who they cut and bring back. I suspect Harrison Phillips will be back which is why I did not list defensive tackle and hope Hughes is back on a team friendly one-year deal (and that we see huge progression from our rookie ends) but who knows.
Honestly, our needs look a lot like last year's but with less cap space to resign and pick up free agents... I get what all the Bills players are saying when they mention the team will look different next year.