Josh Allen might not be considered the league’s best signal-caller, but the Bills certainly do. They put their monies where their mouth is to prove as much on Sunday, when they gave Allen a record-setting six-year, $330 million contract extension.
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Allen signed a contract in 2021 – worth $43 million per year – that tied him to the organization through 2028. While the Bills did not need to extend his contract, they still chose to reward their franchise player for his incredible efforts, just like Saquon Barkley was by the Eagles a week ago. And all it needed was some “needling” by the signal caller himself.
Buffalo’s general manager, Brandon Beane, discussed the new deal on Monday afternoon on The Pat McAfee Show. He revealed that while the Bills’ front office did want to reward Allen, a nudge from him helped them prioritise his extension.
“Josh and I, we have a great relationship. And we keep open dialogue… he’s always, like, needling me a little bit, busting my chops every time he gets passed… we have some fun with it… after the season, we talked… [I] said, ‘listen, we’ll see what we can do on our end’… [and] we improved his cash flow dramatically.”
Beane acknowledged Allen also “helped [the Bills] structure-wise” in extension talks. The six-year length of the deal will allow Buffalo to keep or add quality players around him.
And why shouldn’t he have prodded the GM for a bigger paycheck? The Bills’ signal-caller won his first MVP award in 2024.
Throughout his last two regular season campaigns, he has posted 8,037 passing yards, 57 touchdown passes and 24 interceptions. It is more than what the iconic Patrick Mahomes achieved over the same stretch. Mahomes has recorded 8,111 passing yards, 53 touchdown passes and 25 interceptions.
Beane credits Bills owner Terry Pegula for spending spree
The NFL has a hard salary cap. You cannot exceed it for any reason, and you must be cap-compliant before every new league year kicks off. Despite this, most of the league’s franchises spend a cash amount larger than the salary cap.
Every owner’s cash budget is different. The more liquid, or cash rich, your team’s owner is, the more cash they can utilize on their roster. Jeffrey Lurie, the Eagles owner, is very liquid. This helps his general manager, Howie Roseman, keep superstar players in Philadelphia. The massive contracts Roseman hands out like Halloween candy are possible because Lurie is cash rich.
Conversely, Cincinnati Bengals owner Mike Brown is less liquid. He doesn’t have as much cash at his immediate disposal. As a result, the Bengals cannot afford to offer major contractual guarantees as often as the Eagles. This partially explains why Cincinnati has not extended Tee Higgins, Ja’Marr Chase or Trey Hendrickson. Brown, compared to other NFL owners, is cash poor.
Bills owner Terry Pegula operates more like Lurie than Brown. Because of this, Buffalo has signed three players besides Allen to contracts worth $50 million or more over the past week. Without Pegula’s blessing, Beane couldn’t have given Allen his record-setting contractual guarantee.
“‘Are you willing to spend cash over cap?’ That starts with Terry Pegula. He gives us the resources to truly go out and be aggressive at certain times,” Beane added.
This aggressiveness has cost the Bills cap space at times. They ate a $31.1 million dead cap hit in 2024 after trading Stefon Diggs. They’ll absorb a $15.4 million hit on their 2025 cap because they released Von Miller on Sunday. But they’re not in danger of any such future limitations with Allen. And they could celebrate a Super Bowl win in the future because of it.
