The Bills are set to release Aaron Williams after six seasons, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. This comes a few months after the safety’s season ended due to a neck injury.
This move stands to cost the Bills nearly $5MM in dead money since Williams has two years and some guaranteed money left on the four-year contract he signed to stay in Buffalo. The team will save just $1.775MM by making this move, perhaps illustrating the franchise’s feeling about future Williams contributions. The Bills may designate Williams as a post-June 1 cut to split up the dead money hits. Said move would allow them to save $4.2MM in 2017, but the extra cash wouldn’t be available until June begins.
Williams has incurred consistent neck scares during his career, seeing this type of injury sideline him for most of the 2015 season as well. He played in just 10 games in 2015-16 combined and now faces questions about his future. The 26-year-old Williams started 52 games for the Bills after coming to Buffalo as a second-round pick in 2011.