Bills’ Allen, Edmunds to stay through 2022 season

BUFFALO — Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen and linebacker Tremaine Edmunds are staying around for at least two more seasons.

The Bills on Monday exercised the fifth-year options of both players’ contracts and retained the 2018 first-round draft picks through the 2022 season. The move comes at a combined price of about $36 million, with Allen set to make nearly $23 million in his final year.

The fifth year of the contracts is guaranteed, though the Bills can renegotiate the deals.

General manager Brandon Beane had raised concerns how he’ll fit both contracts under a slow-growing salary cap. The key now becomes negotiating extensions before the fifthyear options kick in for next season.

The salary cap has become a larger issue after its projected growth was stalled by the economic effects of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Allen and Edmunds represented the cornerstones of the future when selected in the first round of the 2018 draft. Beane used a stockpile of draft picks he accumulated by maneuvering Buffalo up the order.

Buffalo moved up five spots to select Allen at No. 7, and then jumped from 22nd to 16th to draft Edmunds.

Allen was the third of five quarterbacks selected in the first round in 2018 and has established himself as among the best of the class, which included Cleveland’s Baker Mayfield, who was taken first overall, and Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson (32nd).

Allen’s production has jumped in each of his three seasons, with his completion percentage rising from 52.8 in 2018 — an NFL low among starters — to 69.2 last year. He’s coming off a season in which he set franchise records with 37 touchdowns passing and 46 combined TDs, 4,544 yards passing, 396 completions, and was part of an offense that scored a team-best 501 points.

Behind Allen, Buffalo won its first AFC East title since 1995 and made its deepest playoff run in 27 years before losing the conference championship game to Kansas City.

Edmunds was 19 when he was drafted out of Virginia Tech, and has been a three-year starter. The Bills value his 6-foot-5, 250-pound frame and speed. He’s topped 110 tackles in each of his three seasons, and has 5 ½ sacks, three interceptions and forced two fumbles in 47 career games.

Allen is eager to stay. “If they called up and wanted to talk tomorrow, I’d be willing,” Allen told The Ringer podcast last month. “But we’ll see. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”