In the world of the National Football League, the new year begins. And instead of champagne and noise makers on the more typical new year on January 1, potential free agents and decision makers are armed with cell phones and contract offers to ring in the new year.
At 4 pm, the new league year began, which means all expiring contracts will no longer exist, and those players will become an unrestricted free agent without a new deal.
The Buffalo Bills did quite a bit to free up enough cap space to keep both left tackle Cordy Glenn, and left guard Richie Incognito for 2016 at least. By doing so, though, it left the Bills with just under $5 million in cap space, and not a lot of flexibility to go after unrestricted free agents at the start of the new year.
It did, however, give the Bills some financial flexibility to issue one-year tenders to their three remaining restricted free agents. Those players are safety Bacarri Rambo, linebacker Ty Powell, and defensive tackle Stefan Charles.
However, the Bills declined to do so, which makes Rambo, Powell, and Charles unrestricted free agents.
Having already issued a one-year restricted free agent tender to defensive tackle Corbin Bryant, right tackle Jordan Mills, and wide receiver Chris Hogan, the Bills needed to make a decision on the remaining three.
Rambo played a considerable amount at safety last season, and really came into his own over the final eight weeks or so. Powell suffered a torn ACL in training camp, but was often pointed to as a great depth player, and a contributor on special teams -- and with such a weak depth chart at inside linebacker, he is a compelling choice. And Charles is a young player that flashes big ability at times, but may be better suited for a 4-3 defense than the 3-4 scheme they run in Buffalo.
Rambo, Powell, and Charles are now free to sign with any team.
