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 fifth-year options kick in for next season.
“It’s not an ideal scenario for that to pick them both up and not extend them,” Beane said a week before the draft. "So we just got to kind of figure out how we can make that work in our system.”
The salary cap has become a larger issue after its projected growth was stalled by the economic effects of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Beane was required to be creative this offseason in retaining three key starters in linebacker Matt Milano and offensive linemen Jon Feliciano and Daryl Williams despite the salary cap shrinking to $182.5 million. He’ll face an even bigger challenge to retain his core players next year, with the Bills currently featuring 26 players eligible to become unrestricted free agents.
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).
In three years, Allen has shed criticism of being erratic during his two final college seasons at Wyoming.
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 1/2 sacks, three interceptions and forced two fumbles in 47 career games.
Inconsistency at times has been an issue, with Edmunds sometimes getting caught out of position.
Beane already had preliminary contract talks with Allen’s representatives, and hasn’t ruled out negotiating an extension within the year.
“Listen, we would love to get Josh extended. No doubt. It has to be a number that works for him and works for us,” Beane said. “Josh wants to be here. That gives me hope we’ll get something done at some point. I can’t guarantee you it will be this year.”
Beane said the key is to be patient and allow negotiations to progress naturally.
“You can’t force it. It happens when it happens,” he said. “If it happens this year, great. If it doesn’t, I’ll be very positive that we’ll get it done next year.”
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.”
More AP NFL coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL
MOGYOROD, Hungary (AP) — Defending Formula 1 champion Lando Norris took his first pole position of 2026 when he snatched it from Lewis Hamilton by just 0.012 of a second at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Saturday.
Hamilton was on course for a record-extending 105th pole position, and first in a full grand prix since Hungary in 2023, before Norris darted through to take it away. Then a penalty dropped Hamilton to fifth.
“It’s been a while,” Norris said. “I felt confident all weekend.”
Norris felt he could easily have gone much faster if he'd had time for another run to iron out mistakes.
“I had the confidence to push more," he said. "I got it to unexplored territory from what happens to the balance when I push it that next level, and I lost a bit of time in a couple of places.”
Norris added that upgrades to McLaren's car give him confidence for Sunday's race, but “it’s a long race ahead tomorrow and it’s going to be a difficult one.”
Charles Leclerc took third for Ferrari, .238 off the pace but will start second alongside Norris.
Mercedes had a tough day. Standings leader Kimi Antonelli was fourth after seemingly being held up by Red Bull's Max Verstappen spinning ahead of him, and teammate George Russell was seventh.
Mercedes could also be facing a repair job after Russell broke down on track on his way back to the pits.
Hamilton dropped to fifth on the grid for the race with a three-place penalty for impeding McLaren’s Oscar Piastri. The penalty means Antonelli now starts ahead of both his main title rivals, Hamilton and Russell.
The Australian driver gestured angrily at Hamilton after taking evasive action when he spotted his rival’s Ferrari going slowly on the inside of the first corner. Piastri ended up fifth.
Asked what his main problem was in qualifying, Piastri said: “Lewis not looking in his mirrors.”
Hamilton said he hadn't had the usual radio update from his team warning of faster cars behind and he told the stewards he wasn't able to spot Piastri in his mirrors.
“I was told literally when he was at the apex behind me, so I had no idea ... I thought everyone had finished their lap," Hamilton said. "Crazy because (the session) had been clean and obviously it wasn’t intentional.”
Hamilton is an eight-time winner in Hungary and this was a day of regrets despite being one of his best qualifying performances since he joined Ferrari last year. “We clearly had the car to be on pole today and I just didn’t deliver so that’s tough to swallow,” he said.
It's the 17th career pole in a full qualifying session for Norris, moving him level with a British hero, three-time champion Jackie Stewart. It's also his first since the Las Vegas Grand Prix in November, though everything went wrong from there.
The following day he lost the lead to then-title rival Verstappen and ended the day with a double disqualification for him and McLaren teammate Piastri over a team setup issue.
Norris' last full grand prix win came a race before that in Sao Paulo, though he has one victory this year in the Miami sprint race.
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
McLaren driver Lando Norris of Britain celebrates after winning the qualifying session ahead of Sunday's Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix auto race, at the Hungaroring racetrack in Mogyorod, near Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, July 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain, left, talks to Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc of Monaco after the qualifying session ahead of Sunday's Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix auto race, at the Hungaroring racetrack in Mogyorod, near Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, July 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
McLaren driver Lando Norris of Britain drives in the pit lane during a qualifying session ahead of the Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix auto race, at the Hungaroring racetrack in Mogyorod, near Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, July 25, 2026. (Attila Kisbenedek/Pool Photo via AP)
