BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — The Bills have signed linebacker Terrel Bernard to a four-year contract extension, the team announced Friday.
Before free agency opens next week, the Bills have prioritized securing core players they have drafted and developed. The deal with Bernard, Buffalo’s defensive captain, follows last week’s extension for leading receiver Khalil Shakir.
Bernard is now under contract through the 2029 season. NFL Network reports the four-year extension is worth $50 million, with more than $25 million guaranteed. Bernard was accounting for $3.5 million against Buffalo’s salary cap in the final season of his rookie contract.
The 25-year-old Bernard 13 games at middle linebacker in his third NFL season, compiling 104 tackles, two interceptions, one sack and three passes defensed. He had a pivotal forced fumble in the divisional playoff win against the Ravens. In 2023, Bernard had 143 tackles, 6.5 sacks, three interceptions and three forced fumbles.
Bernard has quickly made an impact since being selected in the third round of the 2022 draft out of Baylor. He won the starting job in his second season and, last year, joined quarterback Josh Allen as being the team’s only two captains. Bernard’s a do-it-all player in Buffalo’s two-linebacker defensive system in teaming with veteran Matt Milano, and at 6-foot-1 and 224 pounds, has overcome initial questions over being undersized for the NFL level.
“It’s not always just the talent that draws us to people. It’s the total package of who they are as people and then what they can become as players and people as well,” coach Sean McDermott said of Bernard in January. “So he’s had that ‘it,’ that trait about him — that leadership trait.”
General manager Brandon Beane has placed a priority in locking up his young core of players this offseason, a year after Buffalo parted ways with numerous veterans as part of a salary cap-related purge.
Though the five-time defending AFC East champions are projected to have plenty of salary cap space in 2026, Beane still has work to do to get the Bills under the cap before the NFL’s business year opens next week. Buffalo was projected to be about $8.5 million over the cap after cutting punter Sam Martin on Thursday.
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Jonah Bronstein joined the WIVB squad in 2022 as a digital sports reporter. The Buffalonian has covered the Bills, Sabres, Bandits, Bisons, colleges, high schools and other notable sporting events in Western New York since 2005, for publications including The Associated Press, The Buffalo News, and Niagara Gazette. Read more of his work here.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.