Anonymous season is underway in the NFL, and while anonymous scout still has a few weeks left before taking center stage, anonymous player has plenty of good stuff left in the tank.
This week, we check in on Mario Williams in Buffalo, where a divorce is almost certainly inevitable. The Associated Press reported this week that the team plans on releasing the defensive end in an effort to save more than $12 million.
But it seems like there are reasons beyond finance, and one unnamed Bills player has the low down.
"It's been clear to me that Mario doesn't care about anybody but himself," the teammate said, via The Buffalo News. "He followed that up by not giving any effort during the season and complaining about the scheme instead of manning up and saying he played like crap and doesn't care."
The person added that Williams has "totally checked out."
Our immediate reaction here is that this is good news for Rex Ryan. Ryan was going to chisel away the players who didn't fit his scheme this offseason anyway, and it's all the better if he does so with the support of at least some of the locker room. Ryan is a player's first coach, but there were rumblings that he had an inability to connect with this generation of talent. Having Williams, a star player making a lot of money, publicly denounce your scheme, might not help matters.
But at least a few Bills players are sticking up for Ryan, on top of some other on-the-record interviews in recent weeks that have chided Williams for his criticism of Ryan.
If people don't buy in to Ryan, they will see him as a likeable .500 coach who has never been to the Super Bowl. If Ryan gets players on his side, he'll have a 53-man roster that will crash through a brick wall for him.
