Just last offseason, the Bills extended their blindside blocker Dion Dawkins through the 2027 NFL season. In an interview this summer, though, Dawkins expressed an expectation for a new deal after the 2025 season, per Michael Silver of The Athletic. 
“I should get another deal after this year,” he reasoned to his interviewer. “I’m getting better every year.”
To be fair, this is likely something he’s discussed with the Bills front office. The 31-year-old left tackle has always been a team player. That much was evident this week, when Dawkins agreed to a restructured deal in order to free up some cap space, per ESPN’s Field Yates. Buffalo converted $9.79MM of Dawkins’ original $11.05MM salary for the 2025 season into a signing bonus. Doing so created $7.83MM of cap space this season.
While a $9.79MM signing bonus is certainly incentive enough, it’s easy to imagine the Bills agreeing to discuss another extension next season in order to get the reworked deal across the finish line. At the end of the season, Dawkins will still have two years remaining on his contract. Getting an extension with that much time on a deal is often a challenge, but it wouldn’t be unheard of or unwarranted.
Since coming to Buffalo as a second-round pick, Dawkins been a stalwart at left tackle for the Bills. Pro Football Focus (subscription required) has always graded him favorably as one of the better and more consistent tackles in the NFL, but he just recently started earning acclaim as a Pro Bowler in each of the past four seasons.
He may not, technically, be getting better every year, but his consistency has been a crucial contributor to the team’s success in recent years. His current contract’s annual average value of $20.02MM ranks 18th among NFL linemen, and if he delivers another strong season, it would make sense to reward him with a deal that pushes him a bit further up that board.
Players get no say when converting salary to bonus.
If the team wants to do it, they can do it. The player gets the same money, it just hits the cap in a different year. And the salary becomes a guaranteed bonus. They receive the money immediately too.
Players only get a say with incentives or extra years – but that isn’t technically a restructure, it re-negotiation.
Bills better run the ball alot tonight. This defense has no answer for King Henry and Jackson so far …
Thanks for the advance notice
Doesn’t mean a thing if you can’t stop anyone. This defense is seriously bad.
Henry stopped himself, great win from behind for Buffalo!