BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Bills are moving on from a key piece of their defense for many years, releasing starting nickelback Taron Johnson, a source told ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler on Friday. Buffalo is also releasing wide receiver Curtis Samuel, a source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter, as the Bills work to get cap compliant before the start of the league year.
The combined moves will save the Bills just over $7.9 million in cap space (about $6 million from Samuel, $1.9 million from Johnson). The team will not be designating Johnson as a post-June 1 release, a source mentioned. If they had done so, the Bills would have saved almost $7 million more.
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The releases come in the wake of the Bills trading for Samuel’s former Carolina Panthers teammate DJ Moore on Thursday.
Moving on from Johnson is one of the first significant moves as the Bills shift into a different defensive philosophy — from a 4-3 base to a 3-4 — under new coordinator Jim Leonhard. Under former Bills coach Sean McDermott for the past eight seasons, Johnson developed into the team’s starting nickel cornerback.
Johnson, 29, was part of president of football operations and general manager Brandon Beane’s first draft class in Buffalo, selected in the fourth round in 2018. He cemented his role as a starter in 2020 after being benched during the season. Since 2020, no team has been in nickel more often than the Bills (83.4%), with a part of that due to Johnson’s performance.
He will always be remembered in Buffalo for his 101-yard pick-six against the Baltimore Ravens in the 2020 postseason.
Leonhard mentioned last month that he had spoken with Johnson and that he was excited about a potential change in position.
“He knows that we’re going to communicate with him,” Leonhard mentioned, “and find out what’s right because he’s been an extremely productive player in the NFL, and now it’s trying to find out what the best match of some of the things that I’ve done in the past and what they did really well to feature a player like that.”
Samuel’s time with the Bills (2024-25) was riddled with injuries and not much success when on the field. He played in 20 regular-season games and caught 38 passes for 334 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for 14 yards on five carries.
