The Buffalo Bills reached an injury settlement with center Eric Wood and released him on Thursday.
Wood announced in January that he could no longer play football after a postseason physical by the team revealed a disk in his neck was "dangerously close" to his spinal cord.
At what was expected to be a retirement news conference on Jan. 29 attended by many of his former teammates, Wood instead gave a one-minute statement that he remained on the team's roster. General manager Brandon Beane later said salary-cap implications prevented the team from releasing Wood or placing him on the retired list at the time.
The Bills releasing Wood before June 1 means the remaining guaranteed portion of his contract, which extended through 2019, would count against Buffalo's salary cap this season. His release after June 1 would have meant part of that amount would have counted against the Bills' salary cap in 2019.
Wood, 32, was the Bills' starting center for the past nine seasons after being selected in the first round of the 2009 draft.