The Buffalo Bills didn’t have much cap space entering the NFL trade deadline on Tuesday and they swung a deal for veteran safety Amani Hooker who was playing a deal that featured a prorated salary of over $4 million.
With roughly $4M in cap space to begin the day, many wondered if the Bills actually had enough cap space to add Hooker’s contract onto their 2026 books.
Now we know how they made it work.
The Dawkins restructure was the one lever we knew the team could pull to create cap space. When the financial details are released, we’ll update the them here.
Mike Ginnitti, founder of Spotrac, responded to a question on X/Twitter on this topic, regarding the timing of said restructure, as some were under the impression any veteran restructures needed to take place the day before the trade deadline:
This Dawkins restructure hints at Buffalo’s faith in the left tackle to be with the team for 2027 — and potentially beyond — as the Bills have pushed money into the future with him. Frankly, I was never in the camp of the Bills moving on from Dawkins when that speculation swirled in the offseason.
Franchise left tackles can play quality football into their mid 30s, and Dawkins is 32. He’s had a fine start to the 2026 campaign, showing essentially no signs of slowing down in pass protection or as a road-grader in the run game.
