Of all the positions the Buffalo Bills needed to address in the months to come in both free agency and the draft, the one that perhaps most required a veteran plug-and-play solution was offensive guard.

Not surprisingly, that was the first hole on the roster general manager Brandon Beane moved to fill Monday when the two-day free agent negotiating window opened as the team reportedly came to agreement on a three-year contract with former Dallas Cowboy Connor McGovern worth up to $22.3 million with approximately $11 million guaranteed.

About an hour after that news broke, they had another roster spot that will need immediate attention because, as expected, linebacker Tremaine Edmunds has left the team and will be signing a massive four-year, $72 million contract with approximately $50 million in guaranteed money.

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Next up could be safety, where Jordan Poyer is likely walking out the door at One Bills Drive.

It was clear that the price tag for a player like Edmunds, a five-year starter who will still only be 25 years old during the 2023 season, was going to be too much for Buffalo. Beane had warned at the NFL Scouting Combine that fans should not expect a big-ticket signing - or in this case, re-signing - because the team has salary cap constraints this year, and next year, too.

Obviously at that $18 million per year average, the Bills were never going to be in on Edmunds, but that doesn’t mean they’re not going to miss him. He was a polarizing player during his time in Buffalo, but he was also a productive player who is coming off his best season.

“It’s been fun to watch him grow,” coach Sean McDermott said at the Combine. “He was such a young player when we first got him out of the draft. And he’s still a young player with his age. But to watch him mature and grow on the field, off the field, has been a true joy as a coach. I’ve told you this before, you never replace a person or a player like a Tremaine Edmunds.”

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Well, now the Bills have to because in their nickel-based defense, they need a middle linebacker who can cover a lot of ground both in pass coverage and run support, and it certainly doesn’t feel like 2022 third-round pick Terrel Bernard - four inches shorter and 30 pounds lighter than Edmunds - is the man for that job.

One player who would have been an ideal fit, T.J. Edwards of the Eagles, also signed with the Bears which is quite a haul for Chicago, both in talent and in monetary commitment.

Interestingly, the Bears also signed a guard who might have been a good fit for Buffalo, Nate Davis, formerly of the Titans. Another guard, Ben Powers, moved from the Ravens to Broncos, and both of their reported contracts surpassed the one Buffalo gave to McGovern because McGovern is more of a middle-tier addition.

What Connor McGovern brings to the Bills

The 6-foot-5, 308-pounder was originally a third-round pick out of Penn State in 2019. He was forced to sit out that entire season due to a torn pectoral muscle, then was a part-time starter in both 2020 and 2021. It wasn’t until 2022 when he became a full-time player for Dallas and he started all 15 regular-season games he played, and then both of the Cowboys’ playoff games.

McGovern - who was a college teammate of Buffalo’s other starting guard, Ryan Bates - has established himself as a reliable pass blocker which of course is vital in a pass-first offense where the protection assignment is the $264 million man, Josh Allen.

Of the 53 guards who played at least 700 snaps last season, McGovern was graded by Pro Football Focus as the 13th-best pass blocker as he allowed just two sacks and 23 pressures on 548 pass snaps. However, he was not an efficient blocker in the run game as he ranked 52nd, just one spot below the man he will be replacing, Rodger Saffold.

Where do the Bills stand on the salary cap?

Beane made his biggest cap space moves late Monday when he re-worked the contracts of Allen and edge rusher Von Miller which freed up approximately $32 million.

Pulling those levers, combined with earlier restructures he performed on defensive tackle Tim Settle ($600,000), linebacker Matt Milano (a two-year contract extension which freed up $6 million) and running back Nyheim Hines ($1.3 million) not only gets the Bills cap compliant ahead of Wednesday's 4 p.m. deadline, but pays for the moves he made Monday.

In addition to McGovern, the Bills re-signed three special teams players - Tyler Matakevich, Cam Lewis, and Sam Martin.

Reports have Martin's contract as a three-year deal worth $6 million with $2.36 million guaranteed and a cap hit in 2023 of $1.66 million. That’s a nice raise from the $1.1 million he earned last year, but it also gives the Bills a reasonable escape after 2023 with a minimal dead cap hit. Matakevich gets a one-year deal with a void year attached in 2024 which creates a cap hit for 2023 of $1.83 million while Lewis' contract is probably close to $1 million.

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana.To subscribe to Sal's newsletter, Bills Blast, which will come out every Friday during the offseason, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills free agency 2023: Edmunds gone, Connor McGovern arrives on Day 1