With the NFL printing money again now that it has negotiated its way through the revenue streams it lost during the pandemic, all 32 teams must have felt like it was Christmas morning when the league announced a record $255.4 million salary cap for 2024.

“Every dollar you can get helps you,” said Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane, who needs that extra money more than any other GM because even with the windfall, the Bills were $41.3 million over that number at the time of the announcement. “It’s less that we have to take off because we were hoping it would get to 250 but didn’t really expect it to; we were conservatively planning for a number in the 240s. So to get the 255, I was smiling.”

Yes, but he wasn’t smiling for long because there is so much work that has to be done. Since the cap figure was set, Beane and the bean counters at One Bills Drive have been performing massage therapy to Buffalo’s financial plight, pulling levers wherever they can to get the team cap complaint by the start of the 2024 league year, 4 p.m. on March 13.

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“Now that we know the cap, we’re working through getting under and then how much can we create without totally piling up a huge mess, you know, in ‘25 or ‘26, whatever year it is,” Beane said. “We’ve had conversations going on in the last few weeks with different players, representatives. Whether it’s extensions, whether it’s modifying their contract, whether it’s restructuring, which is really just moving some money down (the line). We’re working through all that. We’ve got a deadline here coming up in a couple of weeks.”

What Buffalo Bills have done to address salary cap issues

One of the first moves was to restructure offensive guard Connor McGovern’s contract last week by converting $4.675 million of his base salary into a bonus, and adding two void years at the end of the three-year deal he signed in 2023. That opened up $3.74 million of space.

What are void years? They are a loophole that teams can use to push bonus money into the future to save on the present year’s cap. Of course this eventually must be paid when the player is no longer on the team, and all of the money hits in the first year after his departure. For example, the Bills added two void years at $1.7 million each to Micah Hyde’s last restructure and now all of that $3.4 million has to be accounted for in 2024.

Sunday, it was reported that the Bills cut running back Nyheim Hines, an obvious and easy move that freed up another $4.6 million. Hines came to the Bills in a 2022 trade from the Colts, never really impacted the offense, and then he missed all of 2023 due to a knee injury suffered in a jet ski incident.

Monday, the Bills traded backup offensive lineman Ryan Bates to Chicago for a 2024 fifth-round draft pick, a move that trims $1.4 million off this year’s cap. This was interesting because there was speculation that the Bills might move on from starting center Mitch Morse and go with the cheaper Bates. Instead, Bates goes to the Bears, the same team that had tendered him an offer in 2022 as a restricted free agent, which the Bills later matched.

Which Bills are prime candidates for re-worked deals?

The big move, and the most obvious, will be converting most of Josh Allen’s scheduled base salary of $23.5 million into a bonus and push that money into the future, a transaction that will open up around $22.7 million. This has become a necessary evil with the Allen contract because his cap hits are enormous now that his $258 million extension signed in 2021 is in full bloom.

Beane did this last year with Allen when he moved $26.4 million down the road to free up $21.1 million on the 2023 cap, money he used to sign several free agents, the most expensive being McGovern, Leonard Floyd and Deonte Harty.

“The quarterback numbers have jumped more drastically than the cap has,” Beane said. “We feel fortunate to have Josh, but you’re building your whole team around that contract, and you’re trying to massage it. I would love to skip a year of (reworking Allen’s deal, meaning suck it up and swallow his huge cap hit rather than keep pushing money down the road). That would obviously help us, but I don’t know how practical that would be.”

Morse carries a heavy $11.47 million cap hit which is why the Bates speculation was out there. Cutting him would save a hefty $8.47 million this year, but the Bates trade indicates the Bills want to retain Morse who had a solid 2023 season and is only 31 years old.

Morse is a free agent after 2024, so the Bills could work out an extension if they want to keep him beyond that, or they could convert the bulk of Morse’s $6.89 million base to bonus and spread that out by adding two void years which would create about $5 million in space.

Left tackle Dion Dawkins is a prime extension candidate because his $16.6 million cap hit could be reduced by around $5 million this year and he’s still only 29, presumably with several good years ahead of him. Dawkins has already been amenable in the past to these maneuvers and as one of the members of Sean McDermott’s first team in 2017, he feels like he’s going to be a Bill for life.

Slot cornerback Taron Johnson can become a free agent after 2024, so the Bills would be wise to work out an extension to keep the 27-year-old who was a second-team All-Pro in 2023. He could bring around $4 million in savings this year, and while his future contract would certainly be weighty, that’s a problem for then, not now. They should definitely work to lock him up long-term.

Cornerback Rasul Douglas is also eligible for free agency after 2024, and Beane could approach him to do a new deal to keep him here. But unlike Dawkins and Johnson, Douglas hasn’t been part of the culture for multiple years and he didn’t ask to come to Buffalo, he was traded by Green Bay. He may want to hold off because if he plays as well as he did in 2023, he could be in line for a big payday on the open market.

What Buffalo Bills players could be cut to help salary cap issues?

Perhaps the most emotional decision Beane has to make centers on cornerback Tre’Davious White. His cap figure is $16.4 million in 2024 which is awfully high for a player who has now suffered two serious lower body injuries - a blown out knee and a blown out Achilles - at a position where speed and agility are paramount. He is a beloved player in the organization, but releasing him would save around $8 million.

However, it sure felt at the NFL combine like the Bills want to stay patient with White and see how he looks in training camp before making any decision, though doing so would not help them next week when they need to be under the cap, and when the free agency signing period begins. If they let him go after June 1 they would save $10.2 million on the 2024 cap and his dead cap hits would be $6.2 million in 2024 and another $4.1 million in 2025.

Similarly, Jordan Poyer is going to be a tough call. Cutting him would save $5.7 million with a dead cap hit of $2 million. But with Hyde gone, moving on from the other half of their dynamic safety duo in the same year would be tough, especially since the Bills have very little depth at the position. Minimizing his $4.7 million by tacking on one or two void years on a restructure might be a good idea so that he could play the final year of his contract and smooth the transition to a new back end.

Harty should be cut because that would bring $4.2 million in savings while carrying a manageable $1.375 million dead cap hit. Outside of his huge punt return TD in the finale against Miami, he did virtually nothing for the offense.

The Bills always try to have core special teamers, but Siran Neal feels expendable. He was paid $3.29 million last season for 342 special teams snaps, and many of those were non-plays (kickoffs through the end zone, or fair caught punts). Cutting him opens up $2.8 million and the dead cap is a mere $533,000.

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

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Buffalo Bills salary cap issues: Trading Ryan Bates is just a start