As the Bills prepare to play the Texans, defensive end Mario Williams will get his first shot at the team that made him the first pick in the 2006 draft, shots are being fired.
“I didn’t want to enter free agency in the first place, but it was a one-way door given to me by the G.M. to leave Houston,” Williams tells FOX 26 Sports. “I want the fans there to know entering free agency was not my decision.”
The fans will surely let him know what they think of the situation when he returns on Sunday.
“The way things ended, I definitely feel like it was kind of a rough and all-of-the-sudden goodbye,” Williams said. “There’s some things that I’m definitely uneasy about, the final decision making that happened there. It was just the way it was handled.”
The Texans could have prevented Williams from becoming a free agent by using the franchise tag, but that would have cost more than $20 million for one season, both in cash and cap dollars. And that’s far more than the Texans could have justified giving to a 3-4 outside linebacker who was good but not great.
Actually, Texans fans should have no hard feelings toward Williams. He got a far better deal in Buffalo than he ever would’ve gotten in Houston, and the Texans aren’t exactly struggling without him.
Still, Williams knows things could get interesting, and he welcomes that. Especially from former teammate Antonio Smith.
“Antonio is always picking and prodding,” Williams said. “He’s definitely trying to add fuel to the fire, but nothing is going to add more fuel to the fire than myself and the help of, I’ll guess I’ll say, a select few people who run their mouth and talk crap.
“The one thing that I enjoy and that I look forward to is people adding fuel to the fire. So I welcome all the newcomers as far as jumping on the bandwagon.”
Given the performance of the Bills, it’s likely the only Mario-related bandwagon on which anyone will be jumping this year.