The bottom line on the salary cap story for Buffalo Bills fans is this: The Bills have plenty

of room to improve their team for the 2009 season.

The key questions two weeks before the free-agency season starts are: Will they make the

right decisions? How much will they spend in free agency? And how much more space will they

create by releasing high-priced veterans?

The Bills have about $24 million in cap space under the league-wide cap figure of $123

million, according to Buffalo News figures.

That should be plenty of room with which to enter the free-agency shopping market and fill a

variety of holes, such as: center, tight end, outside linebacker, backup quarterback, pass

rushing depth, safety and perhaps a wide receiver.

The team can fill a few needs via the draft in April. But it is going to need to get to

work in free agency if it wants to climb out of the basement of the AFC East.

The highest priced player on Buffalo's salary cap list is receiver Lee Evans, who signed a

four-year contract extension in October. Evans' cap figure is $9.87 million, and that includes

a base salary of $9 million this year.

Each player's salary cap figure is made up of the actual salary and bonus money he will

receive, plus any amortized bonus money paid out in previous years. (A $5 million signing

bonus, for instance, counts $1 million a year over a five-year contract.)

Behind Evans are defensive end Aaron Schobel ($8.57 million), guard Derrick Dockery ($5.85

million), Chris Kelsay ($5.6 million), and tackle Langston Walker ($5.50 million).

The rest of the Bills' top 10 are: safety Donte Whitner ($4.92 million), cornerback

Terrence McGee ($4.37 million), defensive tackle Marcus Stroud ($4.17 million), tackle Jason

Peters ($4.05 million), and defensive tackle Spencer Johnson ($3.5 million).

The biggest question at the top of the Bills' salary structure is what they will do with

Peters, who wants a new deal and who held out until the brink of the regular season last year

to express his displeasure.

While Peters' play early in 2008 did not match his level of the previous season, he clearly

is the Bills' best offensive lineman. He's arguably the most talented player on the Buffalo

roster. He also has the respect of opposing players and coaches, as evidenced by a second

straight Pro Bowl selection. If the Bills give Peters a new deal and sign a center, everyone

would be playing under renegotiated deals; no one would be on an entry-level contract. The

Bills could opt for a center in the draft.

Budgeting for a new Peters deal could prompt a cutback elsewhere on the line. The two

highest-paid linemen are Dockery and Walker.

Other higher-priced players who could be victims of salary savings include defensive tackle

John McCargo ($1.83 million), who the team tried to trade last season, and tight end Robert

Royal ($2.23 million), who's in the last year of his contract.

Almost all teams in the NFL operate on a "cash-to-cap" basis, meaning they do not want to

spend more in real cash outlays than the actual salary cap total of $123 million. (It's

relatively easy for teams to spend more than the cap limit in a given year, because cap rules

allow teams to amortize a signing bonus over the life of the contract for cap purposes.)

In 2007, the Bills spent about $3 million more than the league-wide cap of $109 million.

Last year Buffalo was about $12 million under the $116 million cap in real cash spending,

according to News figures. That was fairly common for the NFL. Only 10 of 32 teams spent more

than $116 million in actual cash, according to ESPN's John Clayton.

This year the Bills entered the offseason roughly $38 million in cash under the cap to

spend. That was before counting any increases for players who hit salary escalators in their

contracts due to good performance in 2008.

Another salary cap quirk to note: The Bills' actual cap will be roughly $10 million higher

than the league-wide norm of $123 million. Every team's cap is adjusted up or down slightly

based on charges left over from the previous season. The change is mostly from incentives in

contracts that either had been charged against the cap in 2008 but were not earned or had not

been charged against the cap but were earned. Many teams build in these bonuses that they know

players will not earn as a way to raise their cap "roof," so to speak.