Mario Williams Coud Be Signed Today

[DolphinsFreak]

The cross-pollination of the AFC East may be continuing.

Former Jets coach Rex Ryan, now with the Bills, has parted ways with defensive lineman Mario Williams. Former Jets G.M. Mike Tannenbaum, now with the Dolphins, may be signing Williams, soon.

Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the Dolphins are the clear front-runners to sign Williams. There’s currently a push to get a deal done Tuesday.

If the Dolphins sign Williams, they either will be moving on from Cameron Wake or making no effort to match an offer sheet signed by Olivier Vernon. The Dolphins possibly (key word: possibly) could even rescind the transition tender, if they sign Williams.

While the free-agency period doesn’t open until Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. ET, Williams can be signed at any time, because he already has been released.

[Idahomer]

I want Williams badly.. I would take the transition tag off OV50 one way or another. I did not realize that if you assign a transition tag then you don't get compensatory picks for losing him. That's why we get nothing for Clay walking last year. I do think Wake will eventually lower his asking price, and if he doesn't then there are other options either in FA or the draft to put on the other side of Williams. We have an extremely young team, so bringing in a few of these mid 20's to early 30's guys isn't really going to hurt us much. IMO Williams will give us more than OV50 will with a new fat contract.

I find it funny that Jets and Patriot sites are just ripping these moves. Although I guarantee they would be praising the same moves if those players were going to their teams. Tannabum has a history of doing this and depleting the team of draft picks and creating an "older" roster. However, in this case he is just replacing players of similar age that have been here and have not turned this team around. Grimes for Maxwell is a good trade off. Even better is Alonso for Sheppard. Now if we replace Williams for either Wake or OV50 I believe we've made another upgrade. Fact is all of these players had bad years last year so there is risk that last year is what they are. There is also upside in that they all were in different schemes than they had thrived in prior. Williams, Alonso, and Maxwell all played much better in a 4-3 zone scheme. Last year Alonso and Williams were in a 3-4 base defense and Maxwell was in a man coverage scheme. If scheme was the issue for their drop in production we may have just pulled the biggest offseason upgrade that we ever have.

[Seadog]

Wake doesn't then let him go, only one thing he can do, rush the passer, couldn't stop the run to save his life....

[AquaXI]

Agree on your thoughts!

[cuchulainn]

Mario Williams doesn't care about playing for the Dolphins. He has said whoever shows up first with $10M gets him. Personally, I don't think he's worth that any longer.

He should be well rested though as he spent most of last season on the bench.

[Idahomer]

I agree that $10M is too much for him. I am reading that any deal with the phins will be more in the $7.5 to $8.0M range, which I think is fair for him. 3 years $24M with $16M guaranteed should get the deal done.

I don't blame him for wanting more $$. Until last year he was well worth $13M or more a year he was being paid. Once Williams signs with someone he will care IMO. His reputation has been stained by his play last year and he is going to be hell bent on proving that Rex was the problem and not Williams. I love the idea of having a guy that hates Rex and is pissed at the Bills chasing their QB all over the place next season. At 31 years old, if he takes care of himself, which he always has, he has 3 or 4 solid years left in him.

[cuchulainn]

Hope you're right... He's a pass rusher and not much else, so he's pretty much the same as Wake. IF we sign him, we're probably dumping Wake and OV both for him...

[Driven_Phinsane!]

It'll be interesting to see if this actually goes down, or if Miami's name is once again just being used to get someone else to up the ante...

[So Be]

Mario is 31, played 15 games last year with 19 total tackles and 5 sacks in a contract year. He was not the Lone Ranger on Buff's DL with Darius, etc.

There were 7 games when he did not have a tackle, assist or sack. There were 3 more when he had 1 tackle or assist and no sacks. Guess his agent told him he did not need to play for a contract as he has a name fans and teams will want. Yeah, he's a much better option than OV. lol

[Seadog]

Well actually he would fit right in, Miami loves medico overpriced players......We have a whole team of them right now, just look at how well we finished in our division.....

[Seadog]

Mario Williams doesn't care about playing for the Dolphins. He has said whoever shows up first with $10M gets him. Personally, I don't think he's worth that any longer.

He should be well rested though as he spent most of last season on the bench.

Would you sign him for $8M, jc.....and how much is OV asking? I like OV, but have to admit, he was always about a half step from getting the QB....

[cuchulainn]

Agree on OV... his market value was set though when Cameron Jordan signed a 5 year, $55M contract with the Saints making an average of $11M a season. We couldn't come to terms, so we tagged him.

Williams will want $10M per season. We'll see what the deal goes down as. The Giants have already walked away.

[AquaXI]

I hear it's a done deal.

[Seadog]

Yep, my guess is that Wake is gone, and we pull the tag off of OV and hope we get compensated

[VAIDER5120]

Done Deal for 8 mil per Mando

[DolphinsFreak]

The second veteran pass-rusher domino has fallen.

According to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, the Dolphins have finalized a two-year deal with former Bills defensive end
Mario Williams.

It’s a short deal for a 31-year-old, but has the potential to pay big dividends for Miami if Williams can regain his previous form.
He had 38.0 sacks in his first three years with the Bills, but fell to just 5.0 last year, when he was unhappy with his role in Rex Ryan’s defense.

With Jason Piere-Paul agreeing to return to the Giants earlier in the day, it sets the stage for an interesting market for guys such as Robert Ayers and Charles Johnson.

But the most immediate impact might be in Miami, since transition-tagged end Olivier Vernon could draw offers elsewhere. The Dolphins might also choose to try life without Cameron Wake, after last year’s torn Achilles, but it seems unlikely it can be both.
Either way, it’s yet another big splash for the perennial offseason champions.


Rumor - Jags are interested in Vernon and they have a ton of money to spend.

[Driven_Phinsane!]

yeah, they just overpayed like a bitch on Malik Jackson (who i'm a fan of) so now they'll throw a boat load of $$ at OV...We better remove the tag quick so we'll at least be due a compensatory pick...

[cuchulainn]

Goodbye to Wake and OV?

[Update: I'm told if Williams signs with Miami (and that is now likely, barring a team jumping in at the last minute) the deal will average more along the lines of $7.5 to $8 million annually.]
But here's the thing: Mario Williams signs, there is very little way the Dolphins can also keep a $12.7 million transition tender on Olivier Vernon and handle the scheduled $9.8 million salary cap hit for Cameron Wake. Combined with a $12 million cap hit for Ndamukong Suh (the team created $16 million in cap space when it recently restructured his contract), that is a ton of money on the defensive line.

[Driven_Phinsane!]

At the very least i'm assuming we'll now take the T-Tagoff OV, so we'll at least get a compensatory pick next year for losing him...

[cuchulainn]

It was to protect us... They T-Tagged him so as to force teams to have to pay him $12M plus if they wanted him. We've been trying to get him to a team friendly contract for $10-$11M per. He wants more... now that we signed Williams, he's lost all bargaining leverage. Same with Wake, who was asked to take a cut and refused.

Taking the tag off him should mean we get a compensatory pick if he goes elsewhere.

[DolphinsFreak]

I knew about everything except the last sentence. I was unaware that the Dolphins could receive a compensation pick if he was signed by another team. Since I am not a fan I would not have a problem with letting him go and getting a draft pick out of the deal. If they remove the tag things might just work out great for the Dolphins, for a change.

[cuchulainn]

''compensatory picks are awarded to teams that have lost more or better compensatory free agents than they signed in the previous year''

So losing OV and not picking up a better option in FA should net us a Comp Pick. Of course the signing of Mario Williams could affect that depending on whether MW's age and contract help or hurt.

[FTLDOLFAN]

This is good news that we signed Mario Williams. I agree we should remove the transition tag from OV so we can get a compensatory pick. Imagine a D-line with Suh Willams and Lawson on it.

[cuchulainn]

Sounds nice... waiting to see what happens with Wake.

[cuchulainn]

We'll have to see what happens with OV... but we should get a Comp pick if he leaves.

What hurt us with losing Clay was the signing of Cameron. Not sure if signing Mario Williams would have the same effect or not.

''compensatory picks are awarded to teams that have lost more or better compensatory free agents than they signed in the previous year"...