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2021 Worst Buffalo Bills values: No. 7—OL Daryl Williams

He played a lot of snaps and started a lot of games, but was paid as a tackle—not a guard

Matt Warren is Associate Director of NFL coverage for SB Nation and previously covered the Bills for Buffalo Rumblings for more than a decade.

The Buffalo Bills re-signed several players whose contracts expired after the 2020 season in an effort to run it back in 2021. Two of those offensive linemen regressed this past season and lost their jobs. That’s part of the reason Daryl Williams lands on our list at number seven.

In the past when we’ve done our listing, we used cap hit to reflect value, but with the cap shenanigans employed by general manager Brandon Beane recently and the improvement of the databases, we’ve switched to yearly cash payments as our metric.

Williams was re-signed as a tackle, and so his cash figure of $9.75 million fits in there at 25th, so top-half of NFL starters at the tackle position. He didn’t play most of his snaps at tackle, though, ceding that job to rookie Spencer Brown a few weeks into the season. If you put that same $9.75 million at guard, where Williams took the majority of his snaps, he was the NFL’s tenth-highest paid guard.

So yes, Williams played the most snaps of anyone on the entire Bills roster in 2022. He started all 17 games and was able to do it with some form of success and capability. He was also the seventh-highest paid player on the team ahead of All-Pro Jordan Poyer and every offensive lineman not named Dion Dawkins. So he had value to the team, but not as the seventh-best Bills player or the tenth-best guard in the NFL. That’s why he makes the list.

The Bills also thought he was overpaid, releasing him this offseason, though there are conflicting reports on if he was offered a pay cut. He remains unsigned, but could be an attractive add for a team that loses a starter in training camp, the preseason, or during the year.

Buffalo Bills 2021 Worst Values

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  7. OL Daryl Williams
  8. DE Greg Rousseau
  9. LB Tyler Matakevich
  10. DE Boogie Basham

Buffalo Bills 2021 Best Values

  1. QB Josh Allen
  2. LB Tremaine Edmunds
  3. TE Dawson Knox
  4. WR Gabe Davis
  5. CB Levi Wallace
  6. DT Ed Oliver
  7. DT Harrison Phillips
  8. S Jordan Poyer
  9. OT Spencer Brown
  10. RB Devin Singletary

Honorable Mentions