Buffalo Bills: Imagine if Mario Williams steps up

Buffalo Bills star pass rusher Mario Williams hasn’t put up less than double-digit sacks in a single season ever since signing a mega-deal with the organization in 2012, and yet he’s averaging just one sack for every three games played in 2015. Williams can blame Rex Ryan all he wants, but the fact of the matter is that he’s been dropped off in coverage far less frequently than his more successful teammate Jerry Hughes. More importantly, he put up 13 sacks in a season under Mike Pettine in a similar defensive scheme, so trying to scapegoat Ryan doesn’t make much sense to those who are more in tune with the Bills.

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Williams has been a massive disappointment this season, and plenty of Bills fans seem ready to embrace the fact that he’ll be a cap casualty following the conclusion of the 2015 season, barring anything unexpected. He’d have to seriously ramp up his production if he wants to justify an $11.5 million cap hit that comes with a $2.5 million roster bonus, and three sacks in nine games just isn’t enough.

Looking at how beastly he was last season with 15 sacks as the 1A pass rusher to Hughes’s 1B, you can only imagine just how good the Bills defense would be under Ryan this season if Williams played up to his talent level. There’s no doubt that he’s still one of the best pass rushers in the game, but the production simply hasn’t been there for him here in 2015. Whatever the case, he’s failed to involve himself in a single turnover or pass defended, and, more disappointingly, he just hasn’t put consistent pressure on opposing QBs.

See, Hughes also has just three sacks on the season through nine appearances, but, unlike Williams, he’s been a consistent source of pressure. He’s also had three passes defended (few edge rushers are as versatile as he is in coverage) with a pair of forced fumbles and a fumble recovery for good measure, so he’s actually making plays. In fact, The MMQB’s Andy Benoit believes that the Bills have made Hughes their primary pass rusher.

If the Bills defense weren’t in the top-half of the league thanks to elite cornerback play, solid work from the safeties, and Hughes’s efforts up front, more people around the league would talk about Williams’s precipitous drop-off. Remember, we’re talking about a former No. 1 overall pick who signed a $96 million contract a couple of seasons ago and lived up to it by recording a combined 28 sacks in the past two seasons. Williams is no slouch, and yet he’s been more or less a total non-factor on the Bills otherwise-strong defense this season.

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Let’s take a look at his games against the Miami Dolphins as examples of his surprising play this season. Instead of feasting against a weak opponent, such as Jason Fox in Week 9, Williams was negated in both outings. In fact, he was so poor in both games against the Dolphins that his lone stat from those two games was a tackle. He put some pressure on Ryan Tannehill, but it just wasn’t enough to move the meter, particularly when he should have thrived against the competition he faced.

All of this makes me wonder just how good this Bills defense would look if Williams were to suddenly click. This week, the Bills will face the New England Patriots in what counts as a revenge game for Rex Ryan, who already earned a big-time Week 10 victory on Thursday Night Football against the New York Jets. You can bet that he and the 5-4 Bills also have this game circled, with Tom Brady’s monstrous passing effort in Week 2 providing fuel for a defense that would like to avoid being embarrassed in such fashion for a second time.

What ails the Bills defense the most is the fact that their linebackers have played shoddy coverage, leaving the middle of the field completely open to attack. Ronald Darby and Stephon Gilmore make plays with regularity and Corey Graham isn’t exactly bad either, but Brady and other top QBs can pick apart any glaring weakness.

Oct 25, 2015; London, United Kingdom; Buffalo Bills defensive end Mario Williams (94) gestures during 34-31 loss against the Jacksonville Jaguars during NFL International Series game at Wembley Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

But with the types of players the Bills have at linebacker (Nigel Bradham, Preston Brown, and Manny Lawson), it’s hard to see this changing.

So what can overcome these issues is a pass rush that can get to the quarterback with the vicious speed it achieved in 2014, and that all comes down to a potential bounce-back from Williams.

Hughes is doing all he can to lead this Bills pass rush, and Marcell Dareus continues to be a difference-maker in his own right. However, the Bills need Williams to do a much better job of beating tackles off of the edge, and whether it’s old age or something else, he just isn’t getting it done.

Williams is coming off of an illness that limited him to minimal snaps against the Jets in Week 10, so we’ll have to monitor his status in Week 11 against New England. The Bills need him to be back at his best, and, hopefully for them, that will happen at some point this season.

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Because if it doesn’t happen, Williams will most likely be gone at the end of the year, leaving a sour taste in the mouths of Bills fans despite his early- and pronounced- success at the start of his tenure in Buffalo.