Buffalo Rumblings
It’s no secret at this point that Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott expects to see more out of wide receiver Curtis Samuel. Since his arrival at One Bills Drive as a free agent in 2024, Samuel’s tenure with Buffalo has been plagued by injury.
Last season, it was a turf toe injury that threw a curve ball at plans all season long. Samuel never looked completely explosive, at least until the postseason began. Building off a great run in the playoffs that saw him account for three touchdowns, many have high expectations of Samuel ahead of the 2025 season.
The problem for Samuel, once again, is injury. A hamstring issue has kept Samuel sidelined most of training camp — he did return as a limited participant on Friday, August 15. But it’s safe to say that McDermott needs to see more before he trusts Samuel with a large percentage of snaps.
“You know, he’s been out really most of camp. So, the urgency needs to be there for all these guys, and Curtis no different. You know, we need to see how he fits into our offense this year and availability’s important as well as special teams. When you’re not wide receiver number one, that’s true of everyone.”
But does that make Samuel a potential surprise candidate to be released on final cutdown day, August 27? Not so fast.
General manager Brandon Beane signed Samuel to a three-year, $24 million contract with $15 million in guaranteed money. For the 2025 season, Samuel is set to make up to $7.4 million, with $6.91 million guaranteed in base salary. In total, Samuel carries a cap hit with Buffalo of $9.7 million.
There’s essentially zero benefit to the franchise in parting ways with Samuel at this stage of 2025. While Matt Warren did note that Samuel’s deal was structured such that the Bills had outs in each year of the deal, they’d be looking at a roughly $8.635 million dead-cap hit for the 2025 season. How much would Buffalo save on the cap? Cutting ties with Samuel provides the Bills with $430,000 in cap space this season. However, when factoring in what has likely been paid out in the form of workout bonuses ($150,000), that savings could be even lower, and just $280,000 overall.
If Samuel isn’t in the team’s plans this season or moving forward, Beane’s best move is to work out a trade. Doing so would significantly reduce Samuel’s dead cap. But that’s far easier said than done. The Bills would have to find a team willing to take on Samuel’s $6.9 million in base salary, and Samuel would have to pass a physical.
Should Buffalo end up trading Samuel, they’d net a total savings of $7.3 million ($6.9 million base salary plus $280,000 roster bonus.), and a dead-cap hit of $1.75 million in 2025. The move would also alter the team’s dead-cap commitment to Samuel in 2026, with a resultant $3.45 million dead-cap cost next season.
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