Getting a deal done with center Connor McGovern ahead of free agency is looking like one of the quieter wins of the offseason for the Buffalo Bills and their front office.
A lot of people viewed McGovern’s extension as near market value when it happened, but the center market shifted almost instantly once Tyler Linderbaum signed a three-year, $81 million deal with the Las Vegas Raiders. That contract includes $20 million guaranteed at signing and $60 million in total guarantees, with a staggering $27 million average annual value.
That number completely shattered what the center position had looked like, league-wide, just days earlier. Before Linderbaum’s deal, Creed Humphrey held the top of the market at $18 million per year, with $35 million guaranteed at signing and $50 million total guaranteed.
Even with expectations that Linderbaum would reset the market, most projections had that jump landing somewhere in the $21 million to $24 million range, roughly 7%-8% of the salary cap. Instead, the Raiders launched the center market into another realm.
McGovern briefly sat as the third-highest-paid center by AAV before Linderbaum’s deal pushed him to fourth, but that ranking almost misses the bigger point. Buffalo locked in a proven starter before the position exploded, avoiding what now looks like a dramatically more expensive negotiation had they waited.
At a time when criticism around president of football operations/general manager Brandon Beane has been loud, this is one move that quietly aged very well. Sometimes the best front-office work is the kind that barely makes noise when it happens.