The restructured contract for Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor includes a $7 million signing bonus, Vic Carucci of the Buffalo News reported.
The team announced the restructure for Taylor on Wednesday, three days ahead of the original deadline to pick up Taylor’s 2017 option or let him test free agency. The restructure lowers Taylor’s cap number, per the report, to just under $10 million in the 2017 season. It had been around $16 million.
Taylor signed a five-year contract before last season. That contract included the aforementioned option which would have guaranteed $30.75 million of what was remaining on the contract. It’s clear that the Bills’ new coaching staff wanted to keep Taylor but needed to do so at a more manageable cap number.
“We’ve looked, really, at every option and explored every opportunity, at this time, available to us and we just feel like this was the best move for the Bills at this time,” new Bills coach Sean McDermott told reporters.
The new deal still covers five years but the guaranteed money is in 2017-18.