By Wake Jatkins (The Crowd Assist Podcast)
It’s no shock to see this happen, but it’s still news.
Brandon Beane and the Buffalo Bills front office exercised fifth-year options for Josh Allen and Tremaine Edmunds. This ties the two to the Bills through the 2022. Allen’s fifth year will cost the Bills $23.016 million, a massive discount from the $40-$45 million average value we should expect in his extension. Edmund’s option isn’t as much of a value, but it’s still the right decision. The linebacker’s fifth year will cost $12.791 million, officially making him the most expensive Bills linebacker on the roster.
Beane not wanting to extend Edmunds long term does make a lot of sense. He’s a brilliant, athletic, young MLB who quarterbacks this defense, but his career has been hampered by injuries, most notably his shoulder injury last season. The ailment clearly affected his speed and ability to tackle last year. It’ll be very beneficial to get some extra time to evaluate Edmunds and calculate an appropriate extension.
Spotrac has Tremaine Edmunds pegged for a $13.5 million average salary on a five year deal, less than $1 million more than what his fifth year will cost the Bills. I imagine that’s a little low though. CJ Mosley signed the most lucrative deal for a linebacker at 5 years, $85 million. Now I don’t expect Beane to make that mistake with Edmunds, but he arguably deserves to be paid as one of the top LBs in the NFL. He also doesn’t deserve to make less than Falcons linebacker Deion Jones (4 years, $57 million, $14.25M AAV). Kicking this down the road makes sense.
The money for these extensions is guaranteed, so no givesies-backsies.