Every NFL team has contracts they wish they could ditch or players they hoped would live up to the big money handed them in free agency. Most of the time, that's not how it worked. Several Buffalo Bills provided a low return on their investment during the 2016 season.
The numbers we use have been calculated and assembled by Spotrac.com, and is the player's total salary cap figure for 2016. That includes prorated portions of signing bonuses, salary, and any other bonuses paid to give the most complete picture of total payments.
Number 4 - DL Marcell Dareus ($12.7 million cap hit)
There will be folks that argue Dareus is both too high and too low on this list and neither side will be wrong.
Dareus is too high on this list because he played really well in the final eight games of the season. If you double his numbers from that time, he would have set or been near career highs in multiple statistical categories. The guy is a stud.
Dareus is too low on this list because he missed half the season for a seriously dumb reason. He was suspended for the first four games of the season for violating the league’s substance abuse policy, reportedly for skipping a drug test. When he returned, he dealt with groin and hamstring injuries that kept him out of four more games.
With a contract of that size taking up more than 8% of the team’s total cap, Dareus needs to be transcendent and win games on his own. He clearly didn’t do that, even when he was healthy. He is a solid player and a building block as long as he can stay out of trouble, but he needs to live up to his numbers.