The Buffalo Bills currently rank second in the NFL in the amount of cash they are spending in 2025 on the defensive line.
The push to bolster the defensive front saw the Bills sign free-agent defensive ends Joey Bosa and Michael Hoecht and defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi. They also gave Greg Rousseau a new, $20 million a year contract that puts $19.87 million in his pocket this year. Add it up, and the total cash outlay for 10 defensive linemen currently on the roster is $71.62 million, according to the sports financial website Spotrac.com.
Only the Las Vegas Raiders are higher in cash this year to the DL, at $87.9 million, Spotrac shows. Cleveland is right behind the Bills at $70.5 million. Las Vegas gave star edge rusher Maxx Crosby a $35.5 million a year contract, while Cleveland gave its superstar Myles Garrett a $40 million a year deal.
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The Bills’ spending comes in the wake of another season in which the defense did a lot of good things, but the defensive line again fell woefully short in the playoffs against the Kansas City Chiefs.
If there is one constant in the approach of general manager Brandon Beane and coach Sean McDermott to roster building it is that they will commit big resources to the defensive line.
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Here is the Bills’ NFL ranking in cap space devoted to the defensive line, starting with the 2019 season: first, first, second, 17th, fifth, seventh and, for 2025, 11th.
Obviously, the biggest free-agent move in recent years was the signing in the spring of 2022 of Von Miller. He wound up receiving $47.3 over three seasons from the Bills before being released earlier this month.
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“We’ve always, as long as Sean and I have been here, believed it’s built up front,” Beane said just before free agency. “We’re constantly looking at that.”
There are numerous ways to break down positional spending. According to average annual value of contracts, the Bills are third. It may seem odd that the Bills are lower in cap spending, at No. 11.
That is because Beane and his football department used common NFL amortization methods to create more cap space for 2025.
Bosa signed a one-year deal that will pay him $12.6 million this year. However, Bosa is taking up only $5.32 million in cap space, because the Bills put four “void years” on the contract, running 2026 to 2029. That allowed them to spread out his $9 million signing bonus over five years, so it counts $1.8 million a year against the cap.
Even if Bosa leaves the Bills after this season, he will be on the Bills’ books for $1.8 million a year through 2029.
NFL teams are allowed to spread out signing bonuses over a five-year period.
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The same approach was applied to the contract of Ogunjobi. He is on a one-year deal that will pay him $6.69 million. But he counts only $4.1 million against the cap, because the Bills spread out his $3.4 million signing bonus over four years (three of them are called void years), counting $856,684 each year.
The Hoecht contract is three years for $21 million, with a signing bonus of $4.39 million. That bonus is spread out over five years, so Hoecht’s cap charge for 2025 is $4.48 million.
Rousseau’s contract runs through 2029, so the Bills didn’t need to add any void years into it. He received a $17.5 million bonus that is spread over five years, at $3.5 million a year. Rousseau’s cap figure is $5.8 million this year. It jumps to $11.8 million in 2026, $23.3 million in 2027, $24.3 million in 2028 and $25.3 million in 2029.
Both Ogonjobi and Hoecht are facing six-game suspensions to start this coming season for violating the NFL’s performance-enhancing substances policy. They won’t get their base pay for those six weeks, which saves the Bills $2 million total against the cap. The Bills also will get a credit of about $500,000 after the season on the cap, based on the prorated bonus money from their six weeks of suspension.
The other top-spending teams on the defensive line, according to average value of contracts last season were San Francisco (first), Washington (third), Indianapolis (fourth), New Orleans (fifth) and Kansas City (sixth). Super Bowl champion Philadelphia, which had the No. 1-ranked defense in the league, was 29th. That is because the Eagles’ best defensive linemen were on their first contracts. They included Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, Milton Williams and Nolan Smith. Fourth-year player Josh Sweat was on a one-year deal. Sweat signed this month with Arizona, and Williams left for New England in free agency.
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