14:45 ET
Alena GetzenbergESPN
BUFFALO, New York – The Buffalo Bills have given permission to Cole Beasley’s broad successor to seek a deal, general manager Brandon Bean confirmed to ESPN.
Beasley’s camp first approached Bills about a possible move, and the team agreed to allow the slot recipient to explore other options. Finding a solution to its impact on the salary cap seemed inevitable, as it currently has to account for $ 7.6 million in space in the last year of a four-year, $ 29 million contract.
Releasing or trading Beasley would save the Bills $ 6.1 million in restricted space, leaving $ 1.5 million in deadlock. Buffalo currently has about $ 1 million in cap space with moves expected in the near future.
“I haven’t spoken to Cole in person or anything like that. We’ll just accept it day after day,” Bean said Tuesday. “Obviously we will have some difficult decisions to make on the list, again, whether they are direct redundancies, restructuring, enlargements, we will look at many areas with many of these guys as we move forward.”
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After the season ended, Bean said he “expected” Beasley to return in 2022.
The 32-year-old Beasley finished 2021 with the same number of admissions as the previous year (82), but with 274 fewer admissions yards. He had only one touchdown reception, at least for the 2012 season (zero).
He missed one game a year after testing positive for COVID-19 until he was vaccinated. Beasley spoke loudly on social media about his thoughts on NFL / NFLPA policies for COVID-19, including the threat of retirement. During the season, he decided to delete his Twitter account after describing it as distracting. ESPN’s Chris Mortenson said Beasley had been fined several times for violating the COVID-19 protocol.
The broad successor is one of Bills’ required positions this offseason, with Isaiah Mackenzie set to become a free agent this month. Stephen Diggs currently has the biggest constraint on the list for 2022 – $ 17.9 million – and is a candidate for a contract extension.
“[Diggs’ side has] in order to want to do it, we have to want to do it, “Bean said.” You can also have conversations and do nothing because they have value, and we have value. Without going into details, this is probably the best way to answer. “
The Bills have not chosen a broad successor in the first round since selecting Sammy Watkins as fourth overall in 2014.