Allen: I wasn't looking to 'kill' Bills with new deal
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Josh Allen, coming off his first MVP season and the best year of his career, certainly could have sought a new deal that broke all records for NFL contracts.
But doing so wasn’t what mattered most to the Buffalo Bills quarterback.
Allen made history with his recent six-year, $350 million extension by receiving more guaranteed money — $250 million — than any other player. The deal’s average annual value of $55 million, however, is tied for the second-highest in the NFL and pays Allen $5 million less annually than Dak Prescott’s contract with the Dallas Cowboys.
“It didn’t seem like from my perspective I was taking a whole lot less,” Allen said Wednesday, three days after agreeing to the deal with the Bulls. “But the way I make sense of it, when you start getting these fairly big numbers throughout the entire league — it’s weird to say this — but what is [$5 million] more going to do for my life that I can’t already do right now? It’s not that crazy to me.
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“I live a pretty good life. Got a house, got a car. We’re good.”
Allen shared that he instructed his agent, Patrick Collins, not to negotiate a deal that would significantly impact Buffalo’s salary cap.
“I wasn’t looking to absolutely kill them at every chance I could, and I told my agent that,” Allen said. “I was like, ‘If it has any impact on the cap, let’s figure out a way to not do that.’
“Both sides were willing to move and change different things, and it was a pretty calm-mannered negotiation is what I can say from both sides.”
The Bills have been active in the early portion of free agency, signing their own players to extensions — including wide receiver