Clements likely to be franchised

[clumping platelets]

A few points:

 

1) Bills can still sign him to an extension and prorate the signing bonus for 5 yrs (2005-2009). However, to remain cap neutral, the Bills can give Nate a signing bonus of $6,617,650 ($1,323,530 per season). Bills do not have much cap space remaining, so giving $7 million ($1.4 million proration/yr) to sign and then a huge roster bonus(es) in '06('07) that would likely be guaranteed (i.e. prorated) is possible.

 

2) Without an extension of the CBA, signing bonuses can only be prorated for 4 yrs starting in 2006. See HERE

 

3) I do not believe the Bills will even try to re-sign him now. I suspect they are waiting to see the outcome of CBA talks and how signing bonus, etc are handled in the future. There may also be changes to the Franchise Player rules that none of us are aware of.

 

If I'm a betting man, Bills wait until the off-season. If enough cap space is available to re-sign someone, it's likely to be a lesser player on the roster as I believe the Bills have less than $1.5 million remaining available on the '05 cap