Rodney Harrison says Mario Williams won’t win in Buffalo

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Monday launched the second week of Pro Football Talk on NBC Sports Network, and it featured the debut of Rodney Harrison on the show.

Rodney had plenty to say, and he said plenty about Bills defensive end Mario Williams.

Specifically, Rodney thinks the first pick in the 2006 draft should have taken less money to play for a winner.

“They’re not very good,” Harrison said.  “They don’t have a franchise quarterback.  The Patriots will always dominate that division.  The Jets will always be second.  My point here is, you go out and get a $100 million deal, wouldn’t you have taken $80 million and gone somewhere where you could have been competitive every week?  I think this is a huge mistake for Mario Williams.  Mark my words, he will get lost in the shuffle. He will probably fall off the face of the earth.”

For more, here’s the clip.  And you can catch more from Rodney every Monday, at 5:00 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network.

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100 responses to “Rodney Harrison says Mario Williams won’t win in Buffalo

  1. I think everyone but Buffalo fans have been saying that. It is not a disrespectful statement to the Bills or M.Williams. It is the truth. The Bills spent like they were 1or2 players away from a Championship and they obviously are not.

  2. Go to hell, Rodney. There’s something to be said for taking less money in order to win, but there’s also something to be said for helping to BUILD a winner, instead of just riding on the coattails of a franchise that is already great whether you play for them or not.

    There’s no one more disappointed in the way the Bills played than the team or their fans, but let’s at least get to Game Two before you start spouting your BS.

  3. Mario is no idiot, he knows he wont win in Buffalo its all about $$$$$. Smart decision if you ask me.

  4. As a Texans fan I told Buffalo fans what to expect with Williams. He is a good, above average pass rusher with limited pass rush moves. You’re not getting an elite rusher that can be in the running for DPY or leads the league in sacks. For what he is being paid, it’s not crazy to demand that. Bills fans need to stop pounding their chest like they signed the 2nd coming of Bruce Smith. There will be quarters and games where you will forget he is even on the field, just like yesterday.

  5. Did Mario Williams ever expressed his wish to be on championship caliber team? I guess he is one of these players that believe money makes happiness.

  6. Easy for Rodney to say, but not many players are able to play into their late 30’s. Given the typical shelf life of an NFL player and how the contracts work, it’s a better life decision to get as much as you can.

  7. Maybe Mario Williams won’t be a winner in Buffalo because he did absolutely nothing in his first game with Buffalo.

  8. A little off topic, but I found it amusing how yesterday at about 5 o’clock, Rodney declared the Patriots the team to beat in the AFC. After the Jets and Houston did what they did (beat up on bad teams, just like the Pats), and before Baltimore, Cincy, Pittsburgh, Denver and San Diego had even played a game. Go away Rodney.

  9. He leaves a team that is on the verge of going to the Super Bowl to a team that will never see another one, smooth move Mario.

  10. I agree somewhat, but to say the Patriots will always be on top of that division is just ridiculous. As soon as Brady retires the Pats become mediocre.

  11. Sounds like Rodney Harrison just wants to pick on Mario. #1 nobody asked you Rodney.. #2 you can pay me 20 million not to win a Superbowl. .#3 how many super bowl rings were pawned last year? #4 what the heck is free agency for? #5. If all good players took pay cuts to be on one team (Miami heat) one could call it tampering. I see CTE in Rodney’s future.

  12. I wasn’t immediately sold that Buffalo would be as good as everyone thought. Mostly because I’m not high on Ryan Fitzpatrick. But based on yesterday, it seems like we’re going to see the same Bills we always see……a team with a lot of promise but never lives up to expectations.

    We’ll probably see Chan Gailey fired after this year, and the Bills will likely be searching for a new QB. Again.

  13. It might be a stretch of a comparison, but Reggie White took that risk and it worked out pretty well.

  14. I tend to disagree. While their offense might not be good, their defensive line should provide enough opportunity to put up numbers. they have marcell dareus, kyle williams, and mark anderson. Thats no joke front 4.

  15. RODNEY HARRISON along with most pats fans under the age of 35 tend to forget there was a time when the bills and dolphins ruled the east and the colts and pats were fighing for last place.. maybe if mario was really concerned about winning he coulds have taken $ 80 million and still come to buffalo. then we could have some more talent and depth .. remember there is 15 more games still .. go bills

  16. mr. HGH said what? I guess the Cheaters will always win the AFC East. I truly trust Harisson’s opinion. He is an expert on the “Patriot Way”

  17. Ditto, Buffalo is a sports wasteland. Always has been. 4 straight LOSING Super Bowls. Can’t get much worse than that. AND you have to live in Buffalo in the WINTER!

  18. Rodney Harrison is just like a lot of my hometown Buffalo fans…Knee jerk reaction, everybody sucks, we waisted money on this guy, should’ve drafted that guy, should fire him, and shouldn’t have cut him….ONE thing I agree with is that Fitzpatrick’s time is just about up in buffalo…BUT it is only one week, and I’m willing to give them a few weeks before I form my opinion.

    Mario is far too talented to disappear like Rodney says.

  19. Mario won’t win because Mario won’t contribute on every play!

    Mark my words; when the first snow hits Buffalo and Mario gets a taste of playing more than once in a winter worse than he’s ever seen in Texas, Mario will develop an injury that will sideline him until the weather warms back up.

    Too bad in Buffalo it doesn’t warm up til April!

    You got snookered Buffalo! That’s why the Texans never even offered the bum a contract!

  20. Im pretty sure williams knew the bills may not be winning at least this year..maybe next year and another draft they could be there.
    They are not a terrible team just need a few more pieces.

    And yea this is a make it or break it year for fitz.

  21. “My point here is, you go out and get a $100 million deal, wouldn’t you have taken $80 million and gone somewhere where you could have been competitive every week?”

    Because its $20 million.

  22. It was more about Mario being wanted by Buffallo, he flew there and was blown away by the offer and signed. His final year in Houston featured fans telling his fiancé they didn’t need him anymore whe she came to the games after he got hurt. As a personal friend to a couple Texans players, that bothered Mario and influenced him going somewhere where his services were desperately wanted.

    Some players play for championships, others play for themselves so to each his own, Rodney is just being Rodney.

  23. Lets not over react to one game or anything. Not everyone is a front runner like Rodney Harrison. Certain people want to be part of building something from the ground up, rather than just latching on to a team that is already successful

  24. In my opinion, taking less money to play for a winner is the dumbest saying in sports. Taking less money is a situational idea. When an athlete is in his 20’s, he should make as much money as possible because as soon as he declines in play, you will be asked to take a pay cut or just get cut. Once you are in your 30’s, if all you can get is a veteran’s minimum then you should try to sign with the best team that gives you a chance of winning.
    Rodney would think and say differently if he was ever offered 50 million dollars guaranteed with the ability to make another 50 million dollars.
    Championship rings are nice but are only worth 20k monetarily. I would rather have 50 million in the bank. Feel free to disagree but that is my opinion.

  25. They didn’t say that in NE when Dan Marino and Jim Kelly dominated the division for more than a decade, he won’t be saying it the day after Tom Brady retires either. Cheater.

  26. Do you know who ‘s trying to not fall off the face of the earth and figthing to stay relevant since being on the wrong end of The Helmet Catch?
    Rodney Harrison.

  27. Rodney Harrison’s opinion means nothing in the world of nfl commentary. Just another ex-player trying to make comments to draw attention to himself. The patriots won’t always win the division and the Jets won’t always be 2nd. This is one week into the NFL season, don’t overreact.

  28. I agree with Rodney on this one. It’s a lot like Rodney did when he left SD as a star and ended up just being another guy on NE except for the fame of being the guy that gave up the catch to David Tyree.

  29. The Bills dominated the AFC East for a decade. The Patriots are in the middle of their run, but to say they will always be one and the Jets will be two is ignorant.

    To follow RH’s logic, everyone should only play for the division leaders and all the other teams can just go away. Also pretty ignorant. Teams need to build one player at a time. The Bills have been down for awhile, but it seems like they are making moves to improve.

  30. people really still listen to Rodney Harrison? is there another analyst out there who is more annoying ?

  31. lol the patriots will “always” dominate the division and jets will “always” be second… what? Since when has one team ever dominated a division for ever? never. Harrison has had one too many hits to the head.

    What happened for the first 30 years of the franchise? I mean, if you “always” will dominate… you shouldn’t have any lapses.

  32. Rodney Harrison is a twit… this ‘roid head won nothing until he arrived in NE and gravy-trained Tom Brady. And even then he benefited from the Pat’s Spying Cameras and the HGH he was using. Mario Williams should go to the NBC studios and break this lisping fool in two.

  33. Wow, national media hopping ALL OVER the Bills after one game. Mario needs to worry about not getting owned by nobody tackle. Mario should be part of the solution, which will make Harrisons comments false, and if he’s not, he would have stolen money from any team he played for. I see this team bouncing back in a big way the next 2 weeks, confidence is contagious, and it can be built against some teams who played a bit worse than the Bills did Sunday. If the Bills go 0-4, ill put a fork in ’em, other than that, they have just as good of shot as anybody in the NFL. By the way, what have the Pats won? NOTHING. I get it, they make the playoffs and win lots of regular season games, but no SB titles for the NE Bradys, and that window will slam shut when Brady retires. So can it, Harrison, ou can thank Brady for the title you have, because we all know it took him to get it for you.

  34. I’m pretty sure there was a 4 year stretch in the early 90’s when the Bills were second to none.. . well second to none in the AFC.

  35. Always hilarious when Rodney Harrison gets on his pedestal and critiques another player’s way of doing things. Keep it classy, Rod.

  36. The Bills dominated the AFC East for a decade. The Patriots are in the middle of their run, but to say they will always be one and the Jets will be two is ignorant.

    To follow RH’s logic, everyone should only play for the division leaders and all the other teams can just go away. Also pretty ignorant. Teams need to build one player at a time. The Bills have been down for awhile, but it seems like they are making moves to improve.

     

  37. Mario is a supreme athlete but is way over-rated. There will be many games with the stat line like this past sundays (1 tt, 0 sacks), and then every once in a while he will get a 2 sack game. Takes plays off and his hearts not in it. Wish him the best of luck , but being a life time Texan fan, I believe there will be great displeasure in Buffalo with his play.

  38. He will get lost in the shuffle more so because he is overrated than for the team he plays for. Jared Allen is still respected throughout the league and he plays in a market similar to that of Buffalo and the teams talent make up is also fairly comparable.

    Mario Williams had two really good years, two good ones, and the others were subpar. He finished with double digits in sacks only twice in his career and hasn’t finished a complete season in over 2 years. I never thought he warranted the types of contracts he was being offered. Houston obviously thought the same.

  39. Yes because the Bills lost their season opener, there is ABSOLUTELY no chance they will have a winner in the next six years. The Patriots will ALWAYS dominate that division, the Jets will ALWAYS be second…mark my words, you are an idiot Rodney Harrison.

  40. Harrison was lucky when he landed with the Patriots, someone needs to remind him that he was cut by the Chargers. It just happened that NE and Lawyer Milloy where in a contract dispute and they let Milloy go because it was cheaper to keep Harrison. Also NE went on there Superbowl run and if it wasn’t for Tom Brady he wouldn’t have a ring either.

  41. Sure Rodney, lets just let the Pats and Steelers continue to dominate the AFC for another decade. No way that will get tiresome.

    It’s not that I think the Bills are anywhere near a championship team, I just think it would be nice to have someone else perched atop the AFC.

  42. Maybe you should have taken less money to play for the Giants Rodney, then you wouldn’t have gotten embarrassed worldwide by David Tyree.

  43. What Rodney said could apply to a great many athletes, but I do wonder why athletes don’t sign more often with winning organizations if the difference isn’t that great?

    But if players didn’t take a chance on lesser organizations that at least look like they are headed in the right direction, than the Ravens would have never been able to sign Rod Woodson or Shannon Sharpe. We all know how that Ravens team turned out.

  44. Kinda funny, Rodney. Considering the Buffalo Bills and the Miami Dolphins dominated the AFC East in the 90’s, while the Patriots/Colts/Jets fought to not be the doormat. In the 90’s the Bills won 4 division championships and 4 conference championships. The Bills were 92-57 in the 1990’s. The Pats were 68-92, and the Jets were 65-95. So, before you talk trash, you need to know that the NFL was around before your PED infested career was around.

  45. “The Patriots will always dominate that division.”

    The Patriots’ dominance is eternal. It started in 1970, but no one happened to notice until 2001. Brady will play forever and Belichick will NOT revert back to being the avg. HC he was pre-Brady.

    It is written.

  46. He has a $100M contract, Rodney, you still have to work.

    Your former coach and former franchise were punished for cheating.

    As long as he is playing for one of the 32, any of the 32… Mario has a chance to come by some hardware HONESTLY!

  47. Harrison is an idiot. Mario Williams didn’t just go to Buffalo for the money. He went to help Buffalo become a better team, not just join a franchise that is already at the top, thats something someone lazy would do. Williams wants to help bring a championship to Buffalo, to better a team that wants to get back to the days when they were on top, like the early 90’s.

  48. Rodney Harrison knows what it takes to win. Steroids, an all time great quarterback, and a working knowledge of what the other team’s offense is going to do ahead of time.

    Mario Williams should have wanted it more.

  49. Rodney how many rings you win? Didn’t David Tyree end you quest. Solid HOF WR there. In other words get off the Pats pole you and your PEDs no longer play.

  50. Talk about overreaction…if I remember correctly New England lost the opener to Buffalo last year, Brady threw something like 4 interceptions….then Buffalo went on the have an average year and New England was pretty good.

    Harrison is another New England homer….

  51. Harrison is a self-admitted HGH pumping moron. He never won anything until he found Tom Brady. Sooner or later the pendulum will swing in the other direction and the bad teams will be the good ones. That’s the way the NFL works and that’s why its the most popular sport in America.

  52. The Bills are clueless.
    They were snookered into giving a marginal, career back-up QB a long term deal. Then the moment he got paid, he reverted back to being Ryan Fitzpatrick. $100M for Mario Williams, who in my estimation, really doesn’t even love football, he’s just good at it. And worse yet, $27.5M for Mark Anderson, who had a nice year in NE but you might recall was picked up off the scrap heap by the Patriots. It very much remains to be seen how effective a player he’ll be over the long haul.
    Just poor allocation of money.

  53. I can see where Rondney is coming from. At the same time maybe the Bills don’t have the benefit of ILLEGALLY spying on their opposition nor does Mario have the benefit of steroids…..

  54. Anyone ever notice just how bad that 2006 draft was? Williams is good but never lived up to that #1 pick status, then it’s followed up with guys like Bush, Whitner, Huff, Young, Leinart, Sims, etc etc…

    The only thing saving the top of that draft class from being utter garbage is Vernon Davis, Haloti Ngata and D’Brickashaw Ferguson.

  55. Forget the money…and forget the winning or losing…

    Who the hell wants to live in Buffalo???

  56. I imagine that if the Chargers offered Harrison a 100 million dollar contract, he would have turned it down to play for the Patriots.

  57. Big Error in his analysis…

    That assumes some other NFL team would have been willing to spend $80 million.

    At least Buffalo isn’t Oakland and give away draft picks for a has-been.

  58. Mario should have taken less money to play in a good division. The AFC Least is pathetic. The Patriots aren’t as good as the other teams are horrible. Mario should have gone to the AFC North, where three teams went to the Playoffs last year.

    Tom Brady is washed up. He will get to the playoffs because the division is so weak. However, he will never win a Superbowl. He floats the long ball. Anybody with above average corners and safeties will beat Brady.

  59. I don’t know about all of you, but if I was looking for a job and one company was going to pay me 80 million dollars, and the other was going to pay me 100 million dollars, I don’t feel like I would have to think very hard at which one to choose. This is a business after all, it is Mario Williams job. Would you all turn down 20 million extra dollars to play for a team that may or may not win?

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