East Notes: Dareus, Bills, Eagles

The Bills‘ top priority at this point would probably be hammering out an extension with defensive tackle Marcell Dareus, but the timetable on that isn’t 100% clear, as Vic Carucci of The Buffalo News writes. “In the near future,” GM Doug Whaley said when asked about when Dareus could get his new deal. “He will be priority No. 1 once the dust settles post-draft, maybe even before then, just to get the ball rolling.” The defensive tackle is one of the game’s best players at his position and after Ndamukong Suh‘s massive deal with the Dolphins, Buffalo will have to bring some serious bucks to the table. Here’s more from the AFC and NFC East..

  • The Bills could find that space to accommodate a deal for Dareus by restructuring their deal with defensive end Mario Williams. Williams is due to earn $19.4MM this year, $19.9 million next year, and $16.5 million in 2017. “He could free up the most and make it the most logical, because what we would do is not only restructure, but extend him similar to [what we did recently with defensive end] Kyle Williams, so these guys retire as Buffalo Bills,” Whaley said. “We want to set a precedent that we retain our own and we have them retire as Buffalo Bills. I think that’s a sentiment we’re trying to show the players on our roster now.”
  • While some have said that Miles Austin will be taking the spot of Brad Smith on the Eagles, Zach Berman of The Philadelphia Inquirer (on Twitter) doesn’t feel that’s really the case. The versatile Smith was a key special teams contributor while Austin is likely being signed to be more of a pure wide receiver.
  • Sam Bradford‘s former coach Josh Heupel helped talk him out of quitting football, as Mike Sielski of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes. Meanwhile, Heupel is confident that Bradford will shine with the Eagles. “If he’s 100 percent healthy,” Heupel said, “he’ll be able to perform at an elite level.”
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