The Buffalo Bills plan to take the first step toward what they hope is retaining guard Ryan Bates.
A league source confirmed to The Buffalo News on Monday that the team will tender a contract offer to Bates, 25, a restricted free agent (a player with three years of experience whose contract has expried). The deal, which is for one year, is worth $2.433 million and gives the Bills the right to match any offer sheet Bates possibly receives.
Bates, who is 6-foot-4 and 302 pounds, entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent with the Philadelphia Eagles, which meant the Bills had three options when it came to making him an offer as a restricted free agent. They could have put a first- or second-round tender on him, which would have meant another team would have had to give the Bills a first- or second-round pick as compensation had they signed Bates. The cost of those tenders, however, $5.562 million and $3.986 million, respectively, made it highly unlikely that would occur.
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Bates has until April 22 to either sign an offer sheet with another team, which the Bills would have five days to match, or play on his one-year deal. Bates was a pleasant surprise for the Bills at the end of the 2021 season, taking over as a starter in Week 16 against the New England Patriots. Perhaps not coincidentally, the Bills' offensive line seemed to hit its stride from that point forward, and Bates maintained his spot in the starting lineup through the postseason, making it likely that the Bills would do what they could to retain him for 2022.
After releasing both Jon Feliciano and Daryl Williams in moves to free up space under the salary cap, it became even more important to bring Bates back, which Monday's move is a step toward doing.
