When the Buffalo Bills inked Marcell Dareus to a six-year contract extension worth $96.1 million, the Bills were praised for paying the price for retaining their own top-end talent. When that same player was traded last season to the Jacksonville Jaguars for a fifth-round draft choice, the team looked to be admitting that Dareus had worn out his welcome in a Bills uniform.
As far as salary cap value goes, it’s hard to be worse than Dareus was last season for Buffalo, but given the fact that he did not finish the season with the team, he only clocks in at number two on our list of the Bills’ worst salary cap values in 2017.
2017 Cap Hit (per Spotrac): $10,664,705 in dead cap (6.88% of 2017 Cap)
2017 Cap Hit Rank by Position: 6th among defensive tackles with only the dead cap hit charged to the Bills
2017 Vital Stats: 5 games, 3 starts (12.45% of defensive snaps), 4 tackles, 1 sack
Dareus was horrendous in 2017. He never seemed to buy in to what head coach Sean McDermott was selling, and Dareus was suspended for the Bills’ preseason tilt with the Baltimore Ravens after the player violated team rules. He did not play in more than 59% of the team’s total snaps in any of the games he played with the team, and he was traded prior to Buffalo’s Week 8 contest against the Oakland Raiders.
After he was traded to Jacksonville, Dareus did not fare much better, as he combined for 18 tackles and 1 sack with the Jaguars. While Dareus has always been an incredible physical talent, it has been his work ethic and desire (along with immature and questionable behavior) that has held him back.
In 2017, his lackluster campaign certainly merited note as one of the worst salary cap values on the Buffalo Bills’ roster.