{"id":848150,"date":"2026-04-01T23:23:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T23:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/848150\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T23:23:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T23:23:18","slug":"key-bills-free-agents-exit-to-vikings-came-down-to-one-simple-factor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/848150\/","title":{"rendered":"Key Bills Free Agent’s Exit to Vikings Came Down to One Simple Factor"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Buffalo Bills had to make\u00a0a number of\u00a0difficult decisions<\/a> this offseason.<\/p>\n

Cutting bait on Ryan Van Demark was one of them, as the former swing tackle departed Buffalo after the Minnesota Vikings signed him to an offer sheet<\/a> worth $4.2 million that the Bills declined to match. Van Demark had become a reliable depth option for the Bills over the years, and it was tough to see him go.<\/p>\n

At the NFL League Meetings<\/a>, Brandon Beane explained Buffalo decided to let the veteran offensive lineman walk as a restricted free agent because the money simply didn\u2019t work. The Bills initially retained Van Demark\u2019s rights with a $3.5 million RFA tender before the Vikings went over the top to a number that wasn’t feasible for Buffalo.<\/p>\n

\"Ryan<\/p>\n

Buffalo Bills tackle Ryan Van Demark (74) on the field during training camp at St. John Fisher College. | Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

\"\"Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe [$3.5 million] was even a tough number for us to do,\u201d said Beane<\/a>. \u201cAnd I know some people were probably like, \u2018Surprised they were able to do that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Beane added how, while he would have liked to keep Van Demark around, things just didn\u2019t fit after Minnesota increased the cost to retain his services.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really like Vandy and are proud of his development,\u201d added Beane. \u201cThought last year he took a step forward. Played, and obviously, we won some games with him at tackle. Tackles are a premium position, so we tried our best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salary-cap situation\"Ryan<\/p>\n

Buffalo Bills offensive tackle Ryan Van Demark (74) looks up at the Jumbotron to watch the play during second half action at the Bills home game against the New York Jets. | Tina MacIntyre-Yee\/Democrat and Chronicle \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The Bills entered the offseason up against the salary cap and continue to push their financial limits. With the NFL Draft upcoming, Buffalo remains $13 million under the cap, according to\u00a0Spotrac<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow you have to look at our cap, and we obviously spent the money on [DJ Moore] and [edge rusher Bradley Chubb] and some of these other guys,\u201d added Beane.<\/p>\n

Moore will be on the books for over $28.9 million for the next couple of years after the Bills made a significant trade for the former Chicago Bears wide receiver, while the Bills signed Chubb to a three-year, $43.5 million free-agent deal.<\/p>\n

Other choices\"Ryan<\/p>\n

NFL Buffalo Bills offensive tackle Ryan Van Demark | Katie Stratman-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n

Despite the loss of a significant contributor such as Van Demark, the Bills\u2019 president of football operations\/general manager is confident the team has in-house options capable of replacing what Van Demark brought to the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do feel like Tylan Grable, Chase Lundt, who knows what happens in the draft,\u201d said Beane, who mentioned the team will continue to pursue veteran options in free agency. \u201cProud of Vandy. You don\u2019t want to lose him, but that number was already a hard number for us.\u00a0We were stretching to\u00a0kind of\u00a0make it work.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Dion Dawkins entering his age-32 season and injuries causing Spencer Brown to miss a few games here and there throughout the course of his career, the Bills\u2019 swing tackle role is a critical one. Van Demark earned six starts over the past two seasons, and Buffalo must find a player suitable enough to replace him in 2026 and beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Buffalo Bills had to make\u00a0a number of\u00a0difficult decisions this offseason. Cutting bait on Ryan Van Demark was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":848151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2073],"tags":[7,233,259,2529,6,234],"class_list":{"0":"post-848150","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-vikings","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-minnesota","10":"tag-minnesota-vikings","11":"tag-minnesotavikings","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-vikings"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116332031661649986","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=848150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/848151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}