General manager Brandon Beane continues to work through his free-agent backlog, keeping the Buffalo Bills’ roster intact. A day after re-signing linebacker Matt Milano, he’s reportedly agreed to a contract extension with right tackle Daryl Williams. ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler and NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport both had the news.
Per Rapoport, it’s a three-year deal with $14 million guaranteed. The deal averages $9.4 million per year, with a maximum value of $28.2 million. That’s a nice vote of confidence for a player who signed a modest one-year contract in 2020 free agency, then started 16 games and played 96 percent of snaps for the Bills’ offense. With Williams and Dion Dawkins as bookend tackles, Josh Allen was sacked only 26 times on nearly 600 drop backs, the lowest rate of his career.
With these two re-signings in a cap-strapped year, Beane is sending a clear message to the rest of the NFL; his team was close to a Super Bowl last year, and they think they have the resources to make a run in 2021. Two of the team’s top weaknesses have been covered by retaining possible free agents, and that’s exciting to see, juxtaposed against the bevy of teams cutting players this spring.